David Bowie, 69

The biggest news this week was the passing of a true music icon, David Bowie. Bowie was part of the soundtrack of my college life,  with "Let's Dance," "Modern Love," and "China Girl."  But even before this, I already knew that he took on several personas. The one that I distinctly remember was the Thin White Duke.

Later in college, when I did some broadcasting work, I was introduced to his expansive work. Life on Mars, Starman, and Space Oddity became instant favorites.  Around this time, he starred in a fantasy film called Labyrinth, where he played the magical goblin king.  

I also remember one Christmas time, I saw footage of him singing The Little Drummer Boy with Bing Crosby.  However, there was an interesting back story to the duet. Bowie did not like to sing the song, so he did a beautiful counterpoint called  Peace on Earth.  The result was a classic,

The day before his death was announced, I listened to his latest release,  Black Star, on Spotify.  I already ordered it on vinyl without any idea that he was already dying of cancer when he completed this album.  

In fact, he even released a music video a few days before his death. The video Lazarus from the Black Star features Bowie in bed with his eyes covered. 

Thank you for the music, David Jones, Star Man, Ziggy Stardust.  You will never be gone as your music will remain with us.

Dolphy, 83

DOLPHY

1928-2012

Thanks for the gift of laughter. From Jack en Jill to John 'n Marsha to Home Along da Riles, you brought funny and familiar moments to many of us.  May you rest in peace.

Bourne Legacy Official Theatrical Trailer

I just got a look at the official theatrical trailer of Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner.  This is the film that was shot here earlier this year and got local government officials pumped up over the "benefits" the country will get from the experience.

One can get from the trailer that there was this project that created an elite force and Jason Bourne is just one of them.  One agent happened to be this new character played by Renner. What the trailer did not say is why he is in Manila.  

The streets of Manila looked so glossy and yet the chaos cannot be denied. And honestly, I never thought I would see a public utility jeepney involved in a car chase scene of a Hollywood movie! The movie opens in August.  In the meantime, take a look at the trailer below (from youtube.com).

Surprise! Superman Loses his Red Briefs in New Movie

Superman will have a new costume in the new movie, Man of Steel. From this photo I stumbled upon on the Internet, noticeably absent is the iconic red briefs/trunks! In its place is one that is in a darker shade of blue.  

I wonder how fans will react to this.  But searching for more photos, I saw this poster below.  I am not sure if this is an official poster but again, take note of Superman's suit.  It has scales!  

Hmmm... Is this reboot up to something?  Will they make the Man of Steel a half brother of Aquaman?  I won't be surprised since its director, Zack Snyder came up with what could be the strangest movie this year, Sucker Punch.

In what could be another step away from tradition, Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White becomes a black man! Indeed, the cigar chomping boss of Clark Kent and Lois Lane will be played by Laurence Fishburne.  He becomes the first African-American actor to play the iconic role.

I want to see how all of this will look like.  Man of Steel arrives in theaters in June 2013.

(all images came from various sources on the Internet)

Transformers 3: Dark Side of Optimus Prime

The third installment of the Transformers titled Dark of the Moon is named appropriately.  It is dark, gloomy and violent.  It's all about lost friendship, betrayal and losing what you thought is yours.  We see some rays of hope here and there but even Optimus Prime has become more brooding and angry.

The movie begins with a little disruption in the space time continuum or rewriting of history if you will.  During the battle for Cybertron, a lone ship called the Ark and piloted by Sentinel Prime (voiced by SciFi god Leonard Nimoy) escaped the battle worn planet.  It carried the "Pillars", which could have shifted the battle in favor of the citizens of Cybertron.  The Ark crash landed on the moon and was promptly detected by NASA in 1961.  Thus began the space race between the two superpowers of the time, US and USSR.  

Until Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and found the wreckage of the Ark and brought home some artifacts, with the astronauts swearing never to tell a soul about the ship.  Hey, they even brought Buzz Aldrin in the movie to tell us what they saw during the 21 minute break in communication between earth and the moon 42 years ago.

Fast forward to the present and the Autobots are now allied with the Americans.  A botched operation in Chernobyl resulted in the discovery by Optimus of a power cell from the Ark.  This is where he started to, uhm, transform into a dark, moody, angry autobot.  Go watch the movie to find out what happened next.  

The movie is fast paced, action packed and violent.  We now see people getting killed by the Decepticons.  (By the way, was that blood coming from the Decepticon when they were hacked to pieces by the Autobots?)    In other words, the movie is all high testosterone.  Some parts however felt like I was watching Independence Day, especially when Optimus Prime made the speech about their fight for freedom. 


Speaking of testosterone, guys will not miss Megan Fox at all. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is super hot.  From her opening scene showing her derrière and yes, in that scene where she wore a body hugging white dress, she was just smoldering.  Seriously though, she needs to get some acting lessons. 

I saw the movie during the special screening sponsored by Nuffnang and PLDTMyDSL last night at the Shangrila Mall.  There were several cosplayers in the lobby before screening time who were in their autobot costumes.  Some were game enough to pose for pictures with their fans.

A group of young kids got the scare of their young lives when Bumblebee's head rolled on the floor. Literally.  Off went the cosplayer running after his headgear while the kids ran back to their parents.  Ugh... where's my camera when I needed it?

Metropolis: Back to the Mothership

I have often wondered about "Metropolis," Fritz Lang's 1927 silent movie about a dystopian city of the future.  I've only seen some parts of it but never the entire movie.  I finally had the chance to see it in its entirety, and I confess that I instantly became a disciple.

Dubbed as the mothership of all science fiction movies, Metropolis tells about a city divided into two social classes: the elite who live leisurely in their futuristic city above and the workers living in horrible conditions underground.  A theme that still resonates today.  It says that the mediator between the mind and the hand is the heart.  

Metropolis is so much ahead of its time.  From the sets to the effects to the story and the music.  In fact, many of its elements can still be found in movies made 50 years after its release. There's a mad scientist who works in an art deco laboratory.  He created an evil she-robot (called  Machine-Man in the movie) which could pass up as the mother of  C3PO because of their striking resemblance.

The set of the underground where the workers toil obviously inspired one of Madonna's MTVs.  And, dig this, to see what his workers are up to, the ruler of Metropolis uses a telephone with video!  Yup, even before Steve Jobs was born, Lang has already used FaceTime in this movie!  Indeed, even critics agree that the movie remains one of the most influential in any genre.

The story of how Metropolis became complete is also a good one.  When it came out in 1928, some American film distributors deemed the movie to be too long to be commercially viable. They edited, no, chopped the film to a point where only 90 minutes out of the original, almost 3 hours running time was left.  Nobody has seen the movie the way Fritz Lang envisioned it since then.

Over the years, German film institutes tried to develop a version that is closer to the 1928 original.    In 2002, restorers came up with a much longer version using parts found in the then East Germany state.

Many have given up hope that they can restore Metropolis to the version Lang premiered in 1928.  Until 2008, a film archivist in Argentina heard of a rumor that their film archives have a 16-mm copy of the film, which was longer than any known copies.  They sent it to Germany, and indeed, it was an authentic copy of the movie with some scenes that were thought gone.  It added some 25 minutes to what was already.

The version I saw was this 2010 restoration.  It was given the state of the art digital treatment.  Unfortunately, the 16-mm copy was made in the 1970s straight from the original prints, and it included all the scratches and damages which cannot be remedied by today's technology.  One can easily see where the new scenes were inserted because the scratches were evident, and since they were copied from 16-mm negatives, they have a different size.  I really don't mind though, I would rather have these imperfections than not seeing these parts of the film.

So this is the closest we can get to the original film. I'd say that it is a must-see for everyone who loves cinema, in any genre.  With this version, Fritz Lang's vision can be seen again with all its glory. Hopefully, Metropolis would spring another surprise that another more complete version comes out in another country.

(images from www.kinolorber.com)

Why I've Been Away

Whew... It's already February and I still have only one post for the year.  So many things have happened already and I've been silent.  Let's see why.

My sister gave me a Magnavox Blu Ray player last Christmas and I've been very busy with it.  The first Blu Ray Disc I bought was the Disney Pixar movie UP (4 disc set) and can't get over it.  I love this movie and all those added features.  The first disc contained the movie and some bonus features, including two short features.  The second contained documentaries about the making of the film.  The third is a DVD version of the film.  The fourth disc enabled me to download a digital copy of the movie through the iTunes store so now I have the movie in my iPod Touch and iPad.  Blu Ray is a thingamagig! The clarity of the image and the sound are superb that you wonder what you've been missing all these years.  By the way, to get the maximum effect, you must also have a good HD TV and of course, a HDMI cable.

Another gadget I've been busy with the last two months is my iPod Touch 4th generation.  Although I already have an iPad, I was enticed to get this baby because of FaceTime! I can't get over this app because now, not only can I talk with my sisters, I can even see them. One time, I was even speaking to my sister and her kids while they were having dinner.  It as almost like being there with them.  I am really excited what technology will come out this year.  There are already talks about the second generation iPad which will also have both front and back facing cameras.  Does this mean that we'll be able to do FaceTime on the iPad soon? I can't wait!

Tron: Legacy

I wasn't able to see the original Tron movie when it first came out in the 80s.  My friends who watched it were all so excited about it that I was left so curious of the movie.  It wasn't after a decade or so later that I finally saw it on TV.  By then, the technology used for the film looked dated but the concept of the film remained fresh and futuristic.  I understood why my then teenage friends were so excited about Tron and at the time, I was already using a computer and I could only  imagine how it would be like to get inside the grid and battle those rogue programs.

So I was very interested when I found out that the Disney people decided to come out with a sequel to Tron.  This time I will watch it in the movie house, in IMAX 3D and on the first day screening.

The new film began some years after the end of the first movie.  Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is now the CEO of EMCON and he has developed the perfect grid.  He also has a son, Sam to whom he confessed his latest project he called a "miracle".  Then he disappeared.  

Years later, his son (Garett Hedlund) grew up as the majority shareholder of EMCON but has become so disconnected with his father's business because it has turned greedy.  A "page"to his father's friend Alan (Bruce Boxleitner, the original Tron) brought him back to Flynn's Arcade.  There he discovered the secret room and the console where he repeated a command that brought him to the grid.

Once inside the cyberworld, Sam was outfitted and provided with a data disc.  When he asked what he should do, the leader of the outfitters advised him to survive.  Sam was eventually selected to compete in the games.  He met Clu, a program created by his father to help him create the grid.  But instead Clu took over him and l now wanted to conquer the real world.  Fortunately for humankind, Clu has no means to do this. 

Sam was rescued by a program named Quorra who brought him to his the older Flynn.  He tried to convince his father to leave the place but the old man would not budge.  He was afraid that Clu might find him and get his data disc which contained the secrets of the grid and how to go to the "other side".  This made Sam more determined to bring his father back to his world, but he was running out of time because the portal he used was slowly closing and the only way to get there is to get through Clu and his army.

The movie is a visual treat.  It movie made good use of the film making technology at hand to make the grid more spectacular and detailed this time.  The lightcycle race scene was truly awesome on IMAX 3D. The music of Daft Punk complemented the visuals of the film.

The problem I have with this movie is the story, and that's a big problem.  In the original movie, the objective of the main characters was to stop Dillinger from destroying the computer world with his program.  In Tron Legacy, the objective was to destroy the computer world.  There was too much concentration on the efforts of Sam to bring his father out of the computer world and it is because of this that the movie faltered.  There came point that the melodrama was too much to bear.

Also, watching the whole movie gave me a sense of "I think I've seen this scene before in another movie."  Like that famous club scene where Sam meets up with Castor/Zuse (Michael Sheen).  It was so reminiscent of the part were Neo met up with that guy who was holding the keymaker in Matrix 2.  Daft Punk made a cameo role as the DJs but they eerily looked like the twin ghosts in the Matrix.  Other movies come into mind, like Kevin Flynn with all his Zen moments and hooded garments looked like a Jedi.  And of course the ending, it will either remind you of Obi Wan's sacrifice in Star Wars or that of Bruce Willis's character in "Armageddon."  

Towards the end of the movie, I wanted to say the exact words of Kevin Flynn when he realized who Rinzler was.  I didn't get the exact words but it was something like, "Tron, what has become of you?" 

Coming Soon: 3D TV

While High Definition TV (HDTV) has not even taken root in the Philippines, guess what those people behind TV technology are thinking of. Yes, a 3D TV!

In fact just this morning (Sunday afternoon and evening in other places) two events were beamed in 3D.  One was a football match between Manchester United and Arsenal in the United Kingdom (which was won by ManUtd by the way 3-1).  The other was the tribute to Michael Jackson segment of the 52nd Grammy Awards show which featured a 3D music video of MJ's "Earth Song".

The football match in UK was broadcast in specially equipped pubs but reports indicate that a 3D channel will soon be launched in the UK.  According to online reports, those lucky enough to watch the broadcast thought that the technology has a future in sports broadcasting, however it will take a little getting used to.  Some of the audience also noted that pubs should be more lenient with their customers who may leave their stores still wearing their 3D glasses.

Meanwhile, I wasn't able to get the full 3D experience of the Michael Jackson tribute because what was broadcast here was more of the performance of the artists who joined the singing of the Earth Song.  Reportedly, Target department store distributed 3D glasses weeks before the broadcast.  In fact some members of the audience were shown in  red and blue carton glasses used in the early days of 3D movies.

Speaking of movies, I must say that the 3D technology in movies are far ahead than that of TV. The movie AVATAR for example was an awesome experience.  I am afraid that I am getting addicted to those 3D movies because just last week I watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and now I am planning to watch Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D.

Back to our original topic, 3D TV, I don't have the technical knowledge about how this technology works but  it looks promising.  I personally think that  we might be needing bigger TVs to fully appreciate the technology.  Aside from that, we should all get used to watching TV wearing what look like dark sunglasses even at night.