Something I Am Looking Forward To Next Year



What can I say? The original Avatar: The Last Airbender from Nickelodeon is already pretty much perfect... but I can't say I'm not giddy with glee at the prospect of seeing a live-action version of my all-time favorite animated series.

I shudder to imagine what role Mr. Shaymalan will give himself in this one though... oh well.

Still MAD After All These Years

Yesterday, I turned on year older. Today, I'm a little bit wiser, a little bit more guarded, a bit more cynical. But I still love to laugh, to have fun, to not take things too seriously and enjoy stuff like comics, videogames, gadgets and cool, stupid movies. There are things you outgrow, and things that are just... you. So what I'm trying to say is... it's still business and fun as usual.

Thanks to everyone who has greeted me online, offline, in person and on text, from close friends to Facebook affiliates. I take all the goodness I can these days, and I love every iota of it. Much appreciated.

Nokia N97


My Next Phone.

Just when I thought I was content with my nice little 'simple phone and iPod Touch' combo, something pretty awesome comes along to rattle my cage once again. It's the Nokia N97, the latest and seemingly greatest mobile computer and communicator yet from the Finnish phone meisters. The funny thing here is that I can actually speak a bit from experience- through a pretty long and convoluted story I was able to handle a prototype N97 for a while, and man, was I impressed.

Sporting an elegantly simple look, the N97 is in the same feel and size range as the Apple iPhone, albeit more substantial (but in a good way). You can feel the quality of the device, even if it isn't metal. The N97 feels solid and reassuringly firm in your hand, and you'll definitely not want to let this baby fall off. Unlike past smartphones, the N97 doesn't come with a stylus- finally Nokia has come out with a model that can be operated totally by finger presses. But perhaps listening to all those clarmoring for tactile feedback, they also slipped in a pretty awesome full qwerty keyboard for composing long messages or that novella you've been dying to finish.

Running on the latest Symbian OS, the phone does pretty much everything- the hallmarks being media playing, surfing the web and running apps and widgets. Of course for me the most important aspect is video, and with this the N97 pretty much rocks. The widescreen face is great for playing movies and other vids running at a pretty perfect 30 FPS- same quality as my current benchmark for best mobile video, the iPhone/iPod. But the N97 trumps Apple with its speakers. Your video's sounds come out crystal clear, in seeming stereo sound even, which is pretty awesome and totally blows away the competition's weaker speakers. And best of all, you've got 32 GB of memory for storing all your movies, TV episodes, trailers and unmentionable media you want. All that PLUS a sharp 5 Megapixel Camera with perhaps the smoothest and most stable Video Capturing/Recording I have yet seen on a mobile phone.

I have to say, this phone was the model I was looking for a year ago, when I was desperately seeking an upgrade to my first iPhone. It has the huge screen, high quality video and vast storage I wanted (and still want), all in a beautiful package that just screams class and awesomeness. The phone is available this June here in Manila, but I guess I'll have to start saving up (just bought a freakin' sound system). Not in a hurry to upgrade right away, but if I do- I know where I'm going.

Learn more about the N97 here.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete


That's gotta hurt.

The final, final, complete, overstuffed cut of the ultimate fan service movie, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, entitled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete, is more than two hours of CG awesomeness that will have it's main audience- FFVII fans- happy and content. I watched a nice and crispy-clear subtitled version and it looks pretty sweet on a big-screen HDTV. If only for that, it should be worth getting the Blu-ray when it comes out on June 2.

What do you get? Well, for the actual movie you get about 25 minutes more footage- which mostly boils down to a lot more of the charismatic and likeable former bad guys, the Turks (all four of them- Reno, Rude plus Elena and Tseng) and their boss, Rufus Shinra (whom I still believe is the coolest character in FFVII). There's probably a bit too much of Denzel, one of Cloud's orphan wards who has a particularly sad story to tell (which is chronicled in an anime episode entitled On the Way to a Smile: Denzel's Story which is included in the BD). Other nice odds and ends are extensions of action scenes and an altogether clearer script which makes a lot more sense. There are also subtle changes to music selections during certain scenes, which overall makes the movie that much closer to the game which spawned it. But there will of course be people out there who still will profess that 'it still all makes no sense at all', like some idiot writers of some game sites.

There are a lot of changes in the visuals as well- characters now get dirtied or sport injuries (and BLEED) after or during battle scenes- something which was noticeably missing in the original version. Overall, it's all wonderful eye candy, and the action is still the closest you'll get to seeing live-action anime.

FFVII Advent Children Complete is the best version of this slick CG fantasy features, and those who loved it before will do well to just plunk down the moolah for the Blu-ray (if you got a PS3 or BR Player). In any case, this is one of those films you'll love to show off on your big-screen LCD, and that is reason enough to get it. Those who hate the movie or FFVII, well... nah, who the frack cares about those bastards. HAH.

Star Trek (2009)


Boldly going where no Trek has gone before.

Well, what else can I say that all the countless other glowing reviews of J.J. Abrams' re-imagined, re-booted Star Trek movie haven't already said? Well, not much aside from the usual, I guess- the new cast of actors assigned to playing the iconic crew members of the U.S.S. Starship Enterprise are pretty much pitch-perfect, with Karl Urban's Leonard McCoy and Zachary Quinto's Spock looking eerily like cloned younger versions of their previous performers. Chris Pine extricates himself from the bonds of immortal William Shatner by not even attempting to mimic his predecessor, but still succeeds in projecting the Trek's brash, eternal hero with a double shot of hormones and testosterone. It's a complex tale of Time Travel and Alternate Realities which pits the neophyte Trekkers against a revenge-mad Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana) bent on rewriting history one planet at a time.

Performances aside, the special effects are spectacular, with energetic space battles and action occuring in space, in starships, on-planet. Abrams conveys lots of emotion through music and frenetic images which gloriously never devolve into the horrid handicam nonsense of Cloverfield. I felt chills go down my spine in the first few minutes of this film, with a hero's birth juxtaposed in the fires of a deadly attack- pretty much sums up the whole saga of this movie. In any case, that was a good sign that this was going to be a thrill ride, and it was. As an Abrams show, this has its share of wit, snappy dialogue, sexiness, hard-hitting action and quite a lot of humor in between the phaser blasts, transporter beams and collapsing stars. They just took the original premise, the established characters and just. went. wild. Die-hard, purist Trekkies may bristle, but this is just brilliant. THIS is how you re-invigorate a franchise. Or, in this case, re-energize.

Star Trek is out in theaters all over the Federa- er, Metro Manila. Bring together your away team and see this one, all speed!

Dragonball Evolution

Goku's facial expression just captures my own feelings towards this film.

Finally got to watch this last night. On the plus side, the copy I got was wonderfully clear (although I really, really need to get a home theater setup to enjoy good sound) on The Sanctum's big-screen TV. On the bad side, I've heard lots of bad things about this live-action adaptation of Akira Toriyama's mega-popular manga and anime about super-powered aliens fighting it out with massive power blasts... and they're all pretty much true. I'm not the biggest Dragonball fan though, so this really hasn't the magnitude of my Chun-Li review.

Anyway, a legendary alien villain named Piccolo (played by an unrecognizable James Marsters) has escaped his 2,000 year prison and is now trying to obtain all seven mystical dragonballs in order to gain one perfect wish for his revenge against the world. The only one who can stop him is Goku (a totally miscast Justin Chatwin), a youth raised by the kindly Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) with mysterious origins. After Gohan is murdered by Piccolo, Goku sets out to avenge him, joining up with the hot Bulma (Emmy Rossum, whom I have to commend for being able to say her character's whole name with a straight face) and Gohan's mentor, Roshi (a particularly goofy Chow Yun Fat). Oh, and some guy named Yamcha joins up somewhere along the way.

Unfortunately, as is the case that usually happens, Dragonball Evolution falls woefully short in pretty much every aspect in trying to adapt the epic scale of it's source material. This is pretty much TV-grade fare (This is the sort of thing you'd see on the Hallmark Channel), watered down further by the typical silly tendency of Hollywood to force-fit every story into a template (Goku turns into an offbeat teen trying to fit into a high school?) they're comfy with. Mediocre action, cheap-looking CG, a rushed feel to pretty much everything and a lackluster finale fail to reach any power level of significance. Kung Fu Hustle was more Dragonball than this... speaking of which, did I see Stephen Chow's name attached to this flick? Yeesh.

In the end, just a harmless, inconsequential pseudo-fantasy martial arts flick that you just watch and forget. Moving on...

Simply Amazing

My mom(!) sent me a link to a Youtube vid showing then-unemployed 47-year old Susan Boyle coming onstage on the talent show Britain's Got Talent. It was thoroughly satisfying to see this seemingly ordinary, out-of-place lady stand in front of a very demanding audience, quite a few nutters jeering at her age and appearance, and then totally, absolutely BLOW THEM AWAY with a crystal clear voice seemingly piped in from Heaven. Let me say, seeing this for the first time brought tears to my eyes. Simply amazing and thoroughly uplifting. Bravo, indeed. Bravo.

No Reservations: Philippines


Anthony Bourdain enjoys Bulalo and San Miguel beer.

Perhaps a result of my being a very visual person, I love to watch shows or videos about food when I eat. I reason that it may be a way of enhancing the actual food I am scoffing down at the time with the perceived flavor of the stuff I am watching about. Well, no other show is as great for me to eat food by than Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Well, years ago it was another show- Cook's Tour (also by Tony Bourdain). I have Mr. Bourdain to thank for countless good meals made even better, making even simple spoonfuls of rice and tuna taste like Foie Gras, or routine Jolly Hotdogs taste like Black Pudding. Not just the food, but the wonderful travelog experience, the insightful narrations into various countries and peoples, and the genuine appreciation of good taste and good friends makes sure that my iPod Touch will never be without an episode of No Reservations or Cook's Tour.

So it was with real enjoyment that I watched the Philippines' episode of No Reservations. I remembered the 'Fan-atic' episode of NR, where Tony almost went to RP (but eventually settled on Saudi Arabia) but ultimately decided against it due to Filipino fan Augusto's apparent scant knowledge of the country being recommended. Nicely enough, NR eventually made it a point to come to Manila and Cebu and finally have the fickle Bourdain feast on Pinoy fare.

My being a Filipino made watching the Philippines' episode kinda odd- on one hand, all the food being shown was pretty familiar to me, so I wasn't as interested as much in the food (as with other countries) as I was in Bourdain's reactions to the meals. I was kinda disappointed though by Augusto, our country's main representative to Tony. Where you'd expect a country's guide to be fun, energetic and enthusiastic in taking Tony on wild rides and showing the best of their homeland, Augusto was sadly very subdued and pretty much spent most of the time musing over his plate, with Tony serving as a kind of shrink, helping him over his search for his heritage and national identity. Gladly though, it just showed a particularly insightful and empathic side to Tony that was quite wonderful to see.

I'm pretty happy that Tony enjoyed the food and the visit to Philippines in general- the crowning glory being that Cebu Lechon got his highest marks as The Best Pig Ever. I also totally agree with his analysis of the Filipino people- Yes, we ARE too nice. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

Glad you enjoyed your trip, Mr. Bourdain. Hope you visit Manila again someday.

Abangan ang Susunod na Kabanata!



Here's the cover to the next release of Mangaholix Presents, issue 8. It's been a while since the last ish since the Groundbreakers have been busy at work with other stuff, not the least of which is the upcoming release of Mangaholix in the US! Yep, once again Pinoys are breaking into the US comics pie. Hopefully, this time we'll strike it rich.

Anyway, the next ish will still have the Usual Suspects of MP's Pinoy-made Manga stories- Aporia, Midknighters, Sampaguita Daydreams, Kraust and Ninja Girl KO! Release information will be coming soon, so stay tuned. Later then!

New Transmutations


The Elric Brothers return in a new incarnation... Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I've seen a lot of great anime series through the years, but only a few have made a real imprint on my grey matter. One of them was the fantasy-action drama Full Metal Alchemist. FMA had all the traits of the best anime- an unusual and kinda twisted premise (two brothers who lost their body/body parts while trying to resurrect their dead mother embark on a quest to recover what they lost), lots of action that doesn't shirk away from getting bloody, sexy babes, multi-layered conspiracies, hidden agendas, interesting characters, betrayals and plot twists aplenty... you name it, FMA had it. 52 episodes and a couple of movies later, FMA ended (well, the anime did while the manga went on) on some decisive, if not altogether happy, resolutions. Neither Elric brother ever did get to end up with Winry, you don't really know what happened to the nation after the war, and lots of characters (particularly Mustang and his comrades) didn't get enough development as they should have. Still, FMA was awesome and I remember it fondly.

This month, all that I have known that is Full Metal Alchemist is set to be rocked and thrown off the board with the all-new interpretation that is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. This new series will supposedly reboot the series and reintroduce Edward and Alphonse Elric as anime fans have never seen them before. The new episodes may also be more faithful to the source manga, thus ensuring that we will be seeing a new master villain, and more pronounced roles for Roy Mustang and Company. Some things though will remain the same- most of the major vocal cast, notably Romi 'Edward Elric' Paku will be reprising their beloved roles.

FMA:Brotherhood will be premiering this month on Animax on cable, supposedly the same time as Japan (along with the series Tears to Tiara), so that's cool... although I will probably be looking for fansubs or downloads online on my own. Whether the new series turns out to blow the old FMA away or not, I am looking forward to more transmutations and transformations this April. Awesome.

A Must Watch for Comic Book Fans


As Graphic a Graphic Novel-turned-Movie can Get.

I FINALLY got to watch Zack Snyder's comic book opus, Watchmen, last Friday. I was told a lot of things about the movie, going into it. Fans of the book who also liked the movie say that it isn't exact to the source material, but that it was still pretty good. Some say it left them unsatisfied and cold. Some say it was all about big, glowing blue penises. Now, I haven't read the graphic novel/comics yet, so I went into the movie with little baggage and expectations aside from expecting that the movie would at least blow me away with the visuals seeing as this was from the guy who brought us 300.

Well, what can I say? It's easily the densest, most complex comic book movie I've watched so far, with stuff flying at you left and right and images that are probably filled with pages worth of subtext, meaning and references, although all of it probably escapes me. Kinda like Forrest Gump with Superheroes. Despite that, I didn't feel too lost at any time, and I found the action pretty kick-ass (and the whole movie probably just as bloody and graphic as 300 was- at least Snyder is consistent). Visually, once again Snyder has made a world from the page jump up at you in the big screen, this time an 80's era world where very human and very fallible superheroes and supervillains are part and parcel of reality.

Best stuff for me? Rorschauch. Freakin' amazing character, and the actor who brought him to life, Jackie Earle Haley, gives a great performance both in and out of his character's awesome mask. He's like Wolverine crossed with Batman and Hannibal Lecter, and I love how he moves and fights... too bad we probably won't be seeing a Rorschauch Spin-off. Also great, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Comedian... at once despicable and sympathetic, and he rules the screen whenever he appears even if he dies early on in the movie.

Love the costumes- from the old era heroes to the 'present' Watchmen... retro bliss. Yet another point to my argument that All the Movie Directors and Production Designers who recommend Generic Black Leather Costumes for Superhero Movies Should Be Fired. The action in the movie is hard-hitting and powerful- very NOW, which I love. I've never seen action done like they do in this movie- the opening fight with The Comedian, the brawls with Silk Spectre and Nite Owl, the Prison Riot brawl, the final fight between the heroes and the villain... pretty awesome. It's great that despite being a movie full of information and exposition and dialogue, the action is second to none.

Bad stuff? Nixon looked funny. Dr. Manhattan's such an asshole. Aside from that, not much.

For the most part- I really enjoyed Watchmen. No doubt I'll be getting the Blu-ray or DVD, and hoping for lots of cool extras. May buy the comic. Man, that was pretty cool. Way, way cooler than Streetfighter. Heheh.

Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Review



Well. I certainly took one for the team tonight. I could have gone and watched Watchmen. But NOOOOOOOO... I had to go and watch Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. I told myself, it's been a long week and I just want to turn my brain off with a fun but stupid action movie. Well, WRONG. This crapper isn't even much of an action movie. It's just plain stupid, for many reasons.

First off, let me give due respect to the much-flogged and ridiculed Streetfighter movie of Jean Claude Van-Damme and company. Today, we all see it as a hilarious camp-fest but with all it's flaws, it's freakin' fun. And back then, in the late 90s, believe it or not, it was actually pretty cool. It had that effect on you- you're a SF fan to the core, you watch it and you are freakin' amazed that they actually got so much from the game on the film- it was ridiculous, really, but damn fun. I remember picking out the signature moves they threw in- Cammy's Frankensteiner, Ryu's one Hadoken, Ken's Dragon Punch, Balrog's Charging Punch, Honda's Thousand Slaps... Guile's Freakin' Flash Kicks and Bison's silly flameless Psycho Crusher. It was fun and damn I enjoyed it then, and I still have a laugh- albeit a good-natured laugh- everytime I see the flick on cable today.

And now... Streetfighter: Legend of Chun-Li. A movie that has none of the campy charm, fan service fun, cool action or the level of sheer spectacle of the previous movie. It's just plain bad, people. So bad that probably people won't remember this crapper years from now (which is a good thing). It's so bad, it's in the league of the Double Dragon and Mario Brothers movie in the levels of game-to-movie bombs. Pretty much everything is wrong with this stinker, I am a bit at a loss of where to begin.

Legend of Chun-Li follows the titular heroine's 'origin' from her childhood, as a daughter of some rich, connected Chinese guy who practices wushu and kung fu in the garden. The childhood sequence drags for far too long, and for all that boring establishment we get an unnecessary action sequence with Balrog (Michael Clark-Duncan) bashing in to kidnap Chun's father on the orders of Bison (Neal McDonough), a blonde guy with an Irish accent, whom you know is Eeh-vil since when he moves and turns there's a properly sinister and Eeh-vil sound effect. Chun-Li sees her father getting taken away and vows revenge, right? Nope. She just goes on with her life and grows up into Kristin Kreuk. I guess that night wasn't that motivating. More dragging minutes go by. Yawn.

Chun-Li FINALLY gets off her piano-playing butt when a mysterious scroll (Chun-Li: This scroll... could it be a message..?") arrives and has her go on a sort of trip of discovery. NOTE: The freakin' version shown in the theater has NO SUBTITLES in the MANY scenes where they speak all Chinese or Thai, which is just stupid. Anyway, apparently the scroll tells Chun-Li that she must leave her old life behind and find some guy named Gen to find her true destiny. Man, what a very dense and easy-to-manipulate girl. Just send her a scroll and she's all over the place killing herself. Anyway...

She dismisses her servants and leaves her family home to go all Lonely Planet backpacking in Bangkok, and wastes quite a lot more dragging time trying to find the mysterious Gen. Meanwhile, we find out that Bison is planning something BIG. After taking total control of his Shadaloo organization, Bison is planning to TAKE OVER ALL OF BANGKOK'S SLUMS. Well, it's not exactly world domination, but it's early in his career, right? FEH. Once again, there's far too much of Bison scaring public officials to do him favors, forcing Chun's dad to work his connections and having ol' faithful Balrog go here and there as his private gopher.
Trying to find Bison is Interpol agent Charlie Nash (Chris Kline) whose performance is indeed as BAD as they say. The guy is acting like a bad impression of Jim Carrey doing a bad Keanu Reeves action hero cliche skit for the whole movie. Backing Nash up is the sexy cop Maya (Moon Bloodgood) who is supposedly based on Crimson Viper (yeah, right).

Anyway, eventually Chun finds Gen (Robin Shou), who starts teaching her the way of The Force, via really bad CG fireballs. As they do, Chun sneaks out every so often to tangle with Shadaloo (which she finds out all about after reading two newspaper articles on the internet... man, you can find everything on the web but that's ridiculous) and beat up bad guys. She even tussles with Cantana, Bison's secretary/female aide in a pretty unnecessary lesbian mating dance that just comes out of nowhere (so apparently Cantana's sexual preferences were also common knowledge on the Internet) and is just another tacky nail in this film's coffin.

We learn that Bison was the orphaned son of Irish Missionaries (which shows that accents are ingrained in the genes) who grew up a thief in the streets of Bangkok and became the seemingly-invincible super crime boss he is today by killing his pregnant wife in some cave.

WHAT. THE. HELL. Raul Julia's M. Bison was way classier than this. My gosh. Let me say that I was willing to let a lot of things slide with 'Bison' in this film. I accepted that we wouldn't be seeing the military outfit, the metal shin guards or any of his fighting moves. But damn, we never really get a sense that this was going to become the fearsome M. Bison. Psycho power is reduced to 'having no conscience'? Man, ANYONE can do that. You don't even need to go to a weird cave in Thailand. Just be a politician here in Manila.

So everything just kinda-sorta-somehow works it's way to some kind of endgame. Chun-Li gets captured and reunited with Dad, sees Dad get killed by Bison, escapes and then participates in the final assault on Bison's lair with Nash and Gen.

Oh, and sometime before that, she beats up what is probably the most pathetically incompetent incarnation of Vega EVER (Taboo from Black-Eyed Peas) and Balrog apparently gets killed by Gen in a bad kinda-fight scene. All with Balrog never ever showing any sign that he was a boxer. Or that Vega was ever a graceful, deadly elite ninja-like assassin. No, they just get fragged, so basically Bison is all alone with some nameless, nothing guards in the film's action FINALE.

Finale? There's nothing really to the movie's wrap-up, just lots of silly brawling and bad wirework, some crap about Bison's daughter (who is supposed to be important in some way) and lots of sneaking and tumbling around. You know there's something wrong about the movie's 'action-packed' finale when the coolest guy onscreen isn't Chun-Li or Nash, but the lone SWAT guy backing them up. Un-freakin-believable.

Anyway, Chun-Li hits Bison with a Kikouken fireball and a neck snap, and it's over. So... why the hell was Bison so hard to take out in the first place? That was pretty easy. I mean, what made him special? Well, I guess we'll never know.

We then have a little mention of a 'Streetfighter' tournament and a guy named Ryu-something. Sequel? Do I smell sequel???

Oh by all that's holy NO.

I have to say, the one big sin of this Streetfighter movie is, well... it's NOT a Streetfighter movie. It's a revenge-drama flick with martial arts overtones, but not Streetfighter. All the appearing characters who are supposedly based on SF characters pretty much never measure up to the source material. Liberties be damned- if you're gonna make a movie entitled Streetfighter then work the the hell hard to get it to live up to that name. Make some freakin' effort to get the characters recognizable or at least having a faint shadow of who they are supposed to be.
Let me say this- Michael Clark-Duncan is, despite being a black guy, totally miscast (the guy in the Van Damme movie got the look and feel down perfect, in contrast, aside from the change that he was a good guy). Everyone is pretty much miscast, save for Robin Shou who could have at least had dressed like the 'real' Gen and had some of his fighting style.

But really, it's a movie about Chun-Li. WHY CAN'T THEY AT LEAST GET CHUN-LI TO KINDA-SORTA LOOK LIKE CHUN-LI??? I'll accept they can't use the blue outfit, the spiked bracelets, fine. But at least give her those trademark hair buns. The buns ARE Chun-Li. They're not impossible to do. They don't need prosthetics. They don't need CG. They're freakin' cutely-tied up hair. WHY THE HELL NOT?

Even the freakin Chun-Li action sequence from Jacky Chan's City Hunter is better than this whole movie. You could retitle this "The Schoolgirl" and it would probably work better. Or "Stand Up to Fight" if you wanna follow the style of the old Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s.

With all that, needless to say I didn't like this movie.

It's badly written, badly directed, badly shot and badly performed. There are no cool moments, no set-piece encounters to speak of worth remembering. Low production values are just another hit to a movie that is humorless and joyless, not fun, not enjoyable and frequently dragging. Action sequences are rarely good (mainly just the 'practice' scenes are kinda neat) and for the most part are clunky, ugly and just plain bad- the DOA movie kicks this one's butt at least in terms of fighting. You can just tell, there was no love for Streetfighter, no reverence or even respect for the material, in the makers of this film. I wonder just what the hell went into Capcom's minds when they allowed their property to be defaced or connected with this crap.

It would have been better if I said I didn't like this movie because it's been so long and I just am not that big a SF fan anymore. Or that the Van Damme movie is just so much better (it is, actually). Or that I am just a lot older and wiser now, so am immune to blind fanboy wonder when I see any film of a franchise I like taped on the cover. Nope... it's just that Streetfighter: Legend of Chun-Li is a very, very bad movie.

Wanna see Chun-Li done right? Watch the old Streetfighter II the Animated Movie. Or the Streetfighter: Ties that Bind anime loaded in with Streetfighter IV. Or Streetfighter The Later Years from College Humor. Just. Not. This.

A Salute to The Man from Manila: Francis Magalona 1964-2009

I wish I was posting something happy, but what can you do?

Back in the 90s, Philippine Rap found its niche in the hearts of music-loving Filipinos thanks to one man- Francis 'Kiko' Magalona. His unparalleled national pride and true performer's heart will always be something Pinoys should cherish and remember. Goodbye, Francis M.

Fallen

I've seen a couple of short teasers for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I have mixed feelings. Yeah, I enjoyed the first movie, albeit with some reservations (basically too much humans, not enough robots, and the simple fact that the whole film played more or less like the flashiest U.S. Armed Forces commercial ever). The sequel looks to be a lot darker, seeing from how the start of the film has Armageddon-like imagery and has an entire aircraft carrier (maybe even the whole fleet) going down, apparently with all hands. Apparently the arrival of the autobots in the first movie has grave repercussions on the human race as even nastier decepticons, including one supposedly known as 'The Fallen' have come to wreak untold havoc on the puny earthlings. Anyway, Shia LeBeouf, Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox, as well other cast members are back for this more dangerous itineration.

This early though I have more reservations- it doesn't feel like Transformers at all. Perhaps that's because I could not recognize a single character in the trailer- most were just shapeless metal things that were exploding everything around them. Heck, you could tape on Terminator: Revenge of the 1000000 at the end of this and it would still work. Well, hopefully the full trailers will give back that feel.

With Fallen and the real Terminator sequel up later this year, it seems to be the Era of Giant Robots. Hmmm... Transformers vs Terminators... wouldn't that make a cool movie...? Nah.

Less is More, Part Deux


Sony Ericsson W890i.

It's been more than a week since I traded in my Nokia N96 for a new W890 Walkman phone, and I have to say I'm still in honeymoon phase with my new mobile. Despite not being a smartphone, the ultra-slim W890 is awesome thanks to the ease of use, great keypad, nice camera and cool games (Tennis is awesome, if freakin' hard). The screen, while tiny compared to my iPod Touch, is so bright and colorful and makes pics and images light up so nicely. The most fun I am having though with it is the customizability... as with most Sony Ericsson phones, you can create your own themes (thanks to an easy-to-use Theme Creator software that's available free for both PC and Mac). So I can fashion my own complete graphical look for the phone, complete with wallpapers and backgrounds for various screens as well as a message alert tone straight from the game. And since the phone supports animated pics, I can use moving GIFs as cool screensavers as well. So now, just a click can shift my phone from being a Metal Gear Solid 4 (complete with Codec alert tone and Gekko attack screensaver) phone to a Tekken 6 phone or a Final Fantasy mobile. Awesome for an OC fanboy like me.

I guess it's partly culture shock for me to have so much fun from such a slim, tiny device when I once sought out the thickest, most tech-heavy cellphones I could get. And maybe it's also because it's such a freakin' gorgeous and awesomely cool little phone. Sigh. Anyway, enough gushing I guess... gotta make another theme. Heheh...

Less is More


Sony Ericsson W890i.

Yep, I've upgraded again to a new phone. Well, not exactly- it's not an upgrade since I'm actually shifting to a less-flashy mobile to my now-gone Nokia N96... and it's not new either since the Sony Ericsson W890i I have now was released early last year. No, I'm not reverting or anything. It's all in becoming more compact and less redundant with my gadgets.

Of course, it all started with my old iPhone last year. I loved that device (and my Mom still loves it today), but I just had to upgrade eventually. I didn't want to get the iPhone 3G, so I got what I thought was the next best thing- a Nokia N96. On paper, the N96 sounded good. 16GB memory, 5 megapixel camera and high quality video recording, dvd-quality video playing, games... it even kinda-sorta looked like my old iPhone. So I jumped back into Nokia's camp. Unfortunately, it only took a couple of days of me trying to (unsuccessfully) convince myself that the N96's relatively small screen was in any way a nice replacement for the massive real estate that was the iPhone's screen. As a mobile video enthusiast, it was just asking too much.

Less than a week after I got my N96, on a whim I ran out of the office and got myself a new iPod Touch. My 32-Gig 2nd Gen Touch is awesome to this day, and is my portable gaming, video, image and music center. Which means... I didn't need my actual phone to do the same thing any more.

To be fair, I really like the N96... it looks great (one of the really slick Nokias), the overall quality and feel is high, and the tons of vids I can put in the 16 Gig memory is great. However, managing two different devices' worth of media is just too much. Plus the phone's much-touted camera just doesn't stand up to my standards of quality for video and pics... I'd much rather lug my Canon Ixus if I'm gonna snap pics or shoot vids. So... well... all we're left with is a big black block whose talents are inferior to other, nicer gadgets. So something had to give.

So I decided, I have my iPod for games and media as well as a proper digicam... all that's left is just... a phone. So I decided to get the slimmest phone I could get. The W890 ended up being the winner- it's slim and light but feels reassuringly solid in the hand. Plus, it's no slouch in functions (3G Quad Band, Walkman phone, 3.2 MP Camera) and it's very easy to use. Also, using it is far faster and smoother than the sluggish soup that was the N96's interface (slooooow as molasses). So, here we are.

After more than a couple of years of having chunky, do-it-all phones... it's kinda refreshing to have a small, slim and light mobile. Yeah, I still have my iPod, but it's pretty slim too, so the overall feeling is like I just cast off a heavy load. I think I done some good with this configuration... a commuter-commando like me needs to move fast and not be too bulky. And after all this time, I've realized all-in-one devices are just... overrated. At least, up to now. I think I'm at a good balance. Everything's copacetic. Okay, gotta go play with the new toy, er, phone again...

Hope

Today, I am watching a true moment in history as Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States of America.

The hopefulness, the enthusiasm, the glowing pride and the warm optimism is, I have to say, infectious and something that gives me a smile in these hard times.

Here's to Mister Obama somehow fulfilling his promises and taking the US in a different direction from the tailspin he found it in.

Hopefully this inspires someone here in the Philippines to just WANT to change our country for the better as well. Someone to step up and just. Fix. What's. Wrong.

Probably, probably not.

For now, let's all just enjoy the Warm Glow.

One Last Look: 2008

T'was the Year of the Superhero Movie. After tons of disappointing drivel like Superman Returns, 2008 saw some of the best comic-to-film translations yet. Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight have laid the foundation for superhero films to rise even higher and greater than before. With X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Watchmen looming, I can't wait to see comic book movies can accomplish.

T'was the Year of Sequels both crappy and cool. Rambo was bloody awesome, while Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was... not.

T'was the Year of Big Endings. This year saw the end of one of the best animated series I have ever seen, with the closing of Avatar: The Last Airbender. 60 Episodes of Awesomeness culminated in a finale that truly lived up to expectations. Metal Gear Solid 4 came after years of waiting, and finished the Saga of Solid Snake in a big, big way. Metal Gear may continue on without him, but Snake will live on forever. SNNNAAAAAAAAAAKKKKEEE!!!

T'was the Year of the Apple Gadgets. My first-gen iPhone lasted me well into the third quarter of the year, and it's actually still around (with Mom). But I wasn't Apple-less at any point; I use a Macbook Pro at work, I bought an iMac for use at home, and eventually topped it all off with a 2nd Gen iPod Touch. What's next? If a spiffier, cooler Apple device arrives next year, I'll surely be on the lookout.

T'was the Year of the Game. This was the time that I really knew I am a gamer through and through, and I probably will be until the day I die. Gaming has never been as awesome as it is these days, with HDTVs and HiDef making the experience truly a feast for the senses. I can't wait to see what great games and titles are in store in 2009.

T'was the Year of Jet-setting! Yeah, in less than a month's time, I found myself in another country twice in 2008. First in Bangkok, Thailand, and then a couple of weeks later in Taiwan. It was for work, but man, staying in posh hotels and living it up was damn fun.

T'was the Year of Overtime! Let me say this- I don't think I ever went home with the sun in the sky in 2008. Pitches kept me busy day after day, week after week. But despite it all, it just made time move fast and I enjoy a challenge. Better yet, I think we won more pitches this year than any before, so it was all worth it. Work won't be any easier next year, but what the heck... it's a living.

T'was the Year of the Ninja Girl! And hopefully, with Mangaholix and Kriss Sison behind her, Michiko Yamashita will continue to adventure on in 2009.

It was an interesting year, but I have to say... I'm glad it's over. Onwards into 2009!

Looking Back

Here I am, typing away in The Sanctum, where I've been vegging out for the past week. Due to the current clime of holiday traffic and crowds, I have decided to just quit cold turkey with any idea of venturing into malls. Staying home and just Staying Still is the Thing, but that doesn't mean I'm meditating on some higher truth... actually I'm just enjoying the stuff I've squirreled away all these past months but never really got into. Actually, there's so much stuff I doubt I'll finish them all by the time work begins again, but hopefully I'll make a big dent in the backlog.

Anyway, the past year. Man, the past year. It wasn't the best of times. But that's for the world in general, I guess. For me... well... it was a year of working and working and living and working and just getting along. As usual, I got along fine. I have stuff to be thankful for- in work, basically having a pretty great job and a great workplace I continue to enjoy going to and people I enjoy being around with. That's all you can ask for in this challenging economic bunghole we're all in. The next year won't be any easier, but well, it should be cool to keep the thing working as long as we can, as best as we can.

For me, the Comic scene wouldn't outwardly be anything special- I didn't publish any comic by myself. However, I can probably say that this year was my most successful in my comic 'career', thanks to Mangaholix, who let me create Ninja Girl KO! with my art master partner Kriss Sison. Hopefully 2009 will see more and more adventures of Michiko and Anton reach more readers here and, well, wherever. Even so, I STILL do hope to do other stuff with pen and page, so wish me luck. There's a comic yearning to break free into the wild from my head, I just need to tear it out and give it... wings.

There are other stuff too. I'm looking forward to games, comics, movies and other fun stuff in 2009. What's the next cool gadget I can get into? Will there be a new iPhone? A new Do-it-All device? Man, I think we're all going to be blown away by the stuff coming based on what came last year.

Yeah it's going to be hard next year, but hey... it's always hard. What else is new. Just the New Year, and whatever we have before us. That's all we have, and all we need. See you in 2009, everyone.

Rainy Christmas

Perhaps fitting for the way the whole year has gone, Manila saw a rainy, sodden Christmas. Not much in the way or sound or even feeling of festivity from Christmases Past. It was more subdued, less extravagant and more introspective, I believe. The economic crisis, a corrupt, ruthless regime that's filthy and incompetent from top to bottom, and a puzzling frequency of fires has taken it's toll. Yeah, it's still Christmas. Still, Filipinos want to have their Noche Buena feasts and gifts and stuff. But a bit quieter this time.

Not really a biggie for me... we've always had a simple but hearty dinner every Christmas Eve, and that's all we need. Despite it all, I am so happy that I'm still around, and this big chance to just chill, pause and rest for quite a while is something that I treasure. Just some Me Time, some time to savour and just BE without something looming in a couple of days. Bliss, in spite of it all.

Let's be thankful for small miracles, for life and our loved ones. That's all we need.