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.

Tsunami at Haeundae ~ review

When it comes to Korean movies, I always looking forward for their horror offering. But this time, it's a disaster movie. As bad as I want to watch their horror movies, I felt like I should not miss this one too. Maybe it will turn out good. Maybe....

Tsunami at Haeundae has a simple premise; people living their lives at the gorgeous and famous beach in Korea, earthquake deep in the ocean sea occurred, mega tsunami came, and how the people survive the ordeal, or for some how they died. There's also a typical character who knows about the arrival of the tsunami and try to warned the authority but being ignored instead. Everything seems cliche. But cliche isn't exactly a bad thing.

The plot was somewhat separated into two. The 1st half of the movie focus on the introduction and development of the characters. Audience will get to know the central characters that will be involved in the tragedy, their relationships, and their personal struggles. The 2nd half of the movie will involve 2 big tsunamis, a lot of screaming and crying, and a lot of dying. I have to admit though there are some parts that I did not understand in the plot like the relationship between two male characters. It's either the plot did not explain enough or the translation sucks.

The development of the characters in the 1st half did help a lot in giving the audiences the chance to relate to them. We get to see their personal problems, and how they overcome their differences when the disaster strike. It's not all action and no drama. In fact, it was quite balance between the two. The emotions and actions felt real. Who says a disaster movie should all be about major over-the-top destruction? But of course there are some scenes that did not look logic. No need for me to explain in detail there because in my opinion these things are common in this type of movie.

So what about the acting? The actors did a good job in portraying their characters. However, I only recognized two of the actors; Ha Ji-won (from the horror movie Phone) and Uhm Jung-hwa (from various TV series). Hopefully this movie will provide more exposure to the other actors as well.

Overall, I give this movie 3 and a half stars. As many of you may have heard, Tsunami at Haeundae is billed as the 1st disaster film of South Korea. For a first-timer, I'd say they did a pretty good job. Congratulations!


Image source: star-ecentral

An adventure like no other

Title: Pendragon: The Merchant of Death
Author: D. J. MacHale
Cover artist: Victor Lee
ISBN: ISBN 0-7434-3731-4

I like the cover. The synopsis behind the book was quite interesting. And the price is cheap. So I thought I should give it a try and bought it. But did I like it?

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death is the first book in the Pendragon series that contains 10 books and several other companion books. I was first interested in it when I was looking for an adventure book to read in a bookstore. I did not know that there were more than half a dozen of books already in the series at that time, and so I bought it and start to read it without any expectation. Boy was I surprised. It was a great book, filled with action, adventure, humor and imagination.

The book is about a young boy named Bobby Pendragon who was taken by his uncle, Uncle Press, to another world (or territory as they called it in the book) named Denduron. He was forced to accept the fact that he was a Traveler, chosen to fight against Saint Dane who planned to bring every territory into destruction. While he was in Denduron, he learned more about the culture and life in that territory, and the conflict that the people on Denduron was facing. In the end, it was up to him, Loor (a traveler from the territory Zadaa), and Alder (a traveler from Denduron) to save Uncle Press who had been captured, and also Denduron from major chaos in the hands of Saint Dane. While on Second Earth (which is the territory that Bobby came from, the present Earth), Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde, Bobby's best friends, were trying to cope with the disappearance of Booby and learning the new life that Bobby was living through a series of journals that Bobby sent them through a portal.

While the story was good, I was particularly interested in the book narrative which keeps on switching between first-person perspective and third-person perspective. The third-person perspective was when the story focus on Mark and Courtney on Second Earth while the first-person perspective was when the story focus on Bobby through his journals. It was an interesting read. D. J. MacHale had also created the territory of Denduron realistically unique. I was even amazed at how closer I felt the conflict was to home although it was happening on Denduron.

Overall, it's a fun book to read and have good moral values in it too. I was looking forward for the second book in the series. Hopefully it will be as good as this one.

The final round of Dark Tournament begins!

Image source: Coverbrowser

It's been awhile since I last wrote about YuYu Hakusho. Let's continue from where we left off. There might be spoilers so stop reading if you do not want me to kill the fun.

The final round of the Dark Tournament started in Volume 11 of YuYu Hakusho. But before that, we get to see what were the characters up to before the final round begin. Hiei was practising his ultimate moves for his final fight; Kurama and Kuwabara got some help from a former rival to enhance their spirit powers; while Yuusuke finally overcame his grief over the death of his mentor, Genkai, in the previous volume.

The 2 teams who reached the grand finals of the Dark Tournament were, you guessed it, Team Urameshi and Team Toguro. Since each team needed to have 5 members, Team Urameshi added Koenma into their team while Team Toguro added Sakio in theirs. Both contestants however stated that they will not participate in the fight (they would not have the strength to do so anyway).

The 1st round was Kurama vs Karasu. It was an interesting and long fight. We get to see Kurama in his full glory as he fought his heart out against the bomb user, Karasu. So basically it was plants vs bombs in this round.

The 2nd round was Hiei vs Bui. The fight was rather short but it was a violent fight. Hiei showed his greatest skill yet while Bui shed his heavy armors to unleash his full strength. We get to see Bui's face for the first time too (he's quite a good-looking fella ;-P)

The 3rd fight was Kuwabara vs Older Toguro. Although he looks like a small kid, but Older Toguro is a cunning and vicious little man. The fight was quite difficult for Kuwabara. As the situation got tense, Kuwabara finally showed his inner strength and double-up his effort in the fight. But was it worth it? Will Kuwabara win in this round?

The tournament is far from over. The fights and final result of Kuwabara vs Older Toguro will be revealed in Volume 12 of YuYu Hakusho.