Percy Jackson to replace Harry Potter?

I always wonder, which book-adaptation movie will next become a new franchise and replace Harry Potter? Obviously we need a new fantasy adventure film now that Harry Potter movie franchise is nearing its end. I watched The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, certainly not that one. I did not watch Inkheart so I don't know how that goes. I love The Golden Compass but unfortunately the movie did not performed as well as expected, and so the need for a sequel is still questionable. The Narnia Chronicles was doing well until Disney did not want to distribute it anymore. Hopefully the 3rd movie will do well and regain the strength of the franchise. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant performed poorly on its opening weekend, I don't think it can raise up to the same level as Harry Potter. The Twilight Saga? Err...I don't think it's in the same league with the rest that I had mentioned.

And then there's one more, Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Based from the first book in the series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief will be released in cinemas in February 2010. I always wanted to buy the book but always ended up buying something else. Hopefully this movie will give me a good reason why I should then.

Anyway, this movie looks set to become a franchise as big as Harry Potter franchise. Although it's still too early to tell, but with Chris Columbus as the director (he directed the 1st and 2nd Harry Potter movies) this movie has all the potential. Plus, have you seen the teaser trailer? Or perhaps the new poster that had just been released online? They both have that same vibe as Harry Potter movies, well in my opinion at least. From the atmosphere to the title artwork, they all reminded me of Harry Potter.

You can click here to check out the new poster for the movie and decide for yourself. I also have the teaser trailer posted here. Thanks IGN. And for all of you, enjoy!

Oh, you can also click here to go to the official website of the movie. Again, enjoy the trailer!

CeleBRITion! My top 5 Best Britney's videos

Yes, I'm a huge Britney Spears fan. Well, nothing obsessive, I just love her music and style. So hopefully you guys wouldn't mind me counting down my top 5 Best Britney's videos to celebrate the release of her new greatest hits album, The Singles Collection, on November 24, 2009. At first I want to do my top 5 favourite Britney's music videos but that proves to be too hard for me to decide (because I like almost all of her videos!). Hence I come out with this one, the top 5 Britney's videos that I think the best that she had come out with so far.


5 ~ I'm A Slave 4 U

Okay, this video is hot. I was surprised to see the change of attitude and art direction when I first saw it but it's still a great music video nevertheless. The theme, about the drought-affected city-dwellers, is very interesting. Combine that with sexy dance moves, and you have an awesome video. And I also like the lighting effects that make everything appears...hot! (I mean literally).

4 ~ Toxic

Definitely one of the hottest and sexiest Britney's video. Taken from her In The Zone album, this addictive song had even won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 2005. The airplane scene is very funny and I think Britney looks hot when she dyed her hair black in the video. Although the diamond scene is way too sexy for minor, but I think her face looks prettiest during that scene.

3 ~ Lucky

I know not all would agree with me on this one. The song would sound too pop for most people but I just love pop songs, that's why I love Lucky. I really like the story and settings for this video. Plus, I put it so high up in the chart because I like the theme of loneliness that it brings. It kind of makes me feel sad. :'(



2 ~ Me Against the Music

The combination was flawless. I mean it's Britney Spears & Madonna, should I say more? Love the settings, love the dance moves, love the outfits, love the chase scenes (although it's a bit controversial in the end). I think Britney's appearance for this music video is her best look yet. Did I mention that I really like her outfit?

1 ~ Womanizer

So this is it! The number 1 spot for Best Britney's music video! I think this video is very, very classy and stylish. It's totally in a different league compared to the rest of her videos. Plus it featured the best looking male model (his name is Brandon Stoughton by the way) among ALL her music videos so far. The story is funny and together with the addictive beat, we have one amazing and unforgetable music video. Britney (and of course Brandon and the rest of the dancers) rock!!!


So there you have it, the best of the best of Britney's music videos (according to my standard of course, LOL). Don't forget to buy her greatest hits album when it come out. Peace!

Sick joke!

What is this?!?! A sick joke?!?!

I stumbled upon this when I was reading Utada Hikaru Wiki page. Read the last sentence before the Personal Life section. Sorry if the image is not so clear.

Anyway, I was stunned. :-(

Pandorum ~ review

This movie has all the elements that I like. Stranded spaceship, check. Zombie-like creatures, check. Creepy atmosphere, check. Ben Foster, check. I went into the cinema hall expecting something good and I got more than I paid for.

Pandorum follows Bower and Payton who had awaken from their hyper-sleep and found themselves with no memory of who they are and what they are doing. Furthermore they are trapped within their room on the spaceship Elysium (nice name) and there seem to be nobody else around. When Bower got out from the room through the ventilator (I guess its the ventilator) and further explore the spaceship, he found creepy and cannibalistic humanoid creatures, lots of dead bodies and a few survivors. The power is running out and in order for them to survive, they must reset the system. And so Bower and the other survivors make their way to the spaceship reactor with Payton's guidance in the control room to restart it while at the same time fighting their way through these humanoid creatures.

Pandorum is actually a fictional psycological condition caused by extended periods of hyper sleep (suspended animation) and its symptoms and effects include severe paranoia, vivid hallucinations and homicidal instincts.


To be honest, I really, really love Pandorum. I fall in love with it! I love the story, I love the characters, I love the settings, I love everything about it. The acting, especially from Ben Foster, is just fabulous. Ben Foster is truly amazing in this movie. And the other two characters that I like are Nadia played by Antje Traue in her first ever English-language role, and Manh, played by Viatnamese American kickboxer, actor and mixed martial artist Cung Lee. However, I think Dennis Quaid's Payton character is a bit underdeveloped. Other actors include Cam Gigandet as Gallo, Norman Reedus as Shepard, and Andre Hennicke as the Hunter Leader.

What about the plot? Being a sci-fi movie, I think Pandorum do have problems in explaining the complicated background and concept that were featured in it. Audience needs to fully concentrate on what the actors are saying to fully understand it. Plus, there are several things that I think did not seem right. However, I think the story about human survival in Pandorum is very interesting and this in effect tend to make me overlook all the negative things about the movie.


To sum it up, I LOVE Pandorum! It's obvious from my review right? 4 and a half stars out of 5 for the incredible Pandorum.

Oops! I forgot. I do have several other things that I don't understand about Pandorum. Two of them are; why most critics hate it? Another one is, why did it failed in the US box-office? Two big questions there.

Surrogates ~ review

Surrogates takes us into a near possible future where people don't necessarily have to go out anymore. Instead, we have surrogates, robots that we control with our mind, to run our chores. To be more precise, the surrogates run our lives for us. Neat isn't it? Well, apparently not. Although it brings a lot of benefits, but it also degrades human connection and mentality.



The story focuses on Tom Greer, an FBI Agent, who's investigating a murder case. This is truly shocking in a society where murder does not happen thanks to the use of surrogates. To prevent it from happening again (and also to prevent panic among uninformed civilians), Greer together with his partner Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) investigate the murder that leads them to an even bigger conspiracy.



Surrogates is one of those films that I found to have an interesting trailer but not so on the movie itself. Set in a world with robots but not too elaborated like the one in I,Robot or even A.I., I find the concept of life in Surrogates to be fresh and fascinating. So obviously I did not have problem with the whole concept of the movie. What was disappointing for me is the lack of drive in the story. Take out the beautiful surrogates and explosive actions, and all you have left is a normal investigation story. Of course there are twists here and there in the plot but they do not seem to be enough to leveled up the mediocrity of the story. I think Surrogates could have been a better film if they could come up with a better plot.



But not all is bad for the film. For starters, it starred Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell. I really love both actors so seeing them being 'surrogated' is very interesting for me. And of course no complaints for their acting, I think they did good. All the other actors did pretty well too on their part, and that includes Ving Rhames as the Prophet, Rosamund Pike as Mrs Greer and James Cromwell as Dr. Lionel Canter.



Another prospect that I love about this movie is the make-up effects (yup, you read that right). You can really see the difference between the smooth-skinned-and-beautiful surrogates and the old-with-wrinkle-lines-and-imperfect-skins of their counterpart. It's very real and believable.

In general, Surrogates is just an okay movie. It's not so bad but not that good either. It could have been better. It was still an enjoyable watch and so I give 3 stars for the efforts.