an exercise in procrastination

ngyar.

whenever i'm supposed to do some work i'm opposed to doing, this is what i do first. procrastinate. well... la lang. na-miss ko ring mag-blog so here we are. heniweys...

i'm okay now. the past two weeks have been so-so for me, mainly because i had on-and-off hyperacidity attacks. and for an avowed gourmand like me, that sucks to high heaven, because i can't eat anything but safe (read: sick) food. bad trip. i swear steak ang reward dito in two weeks' time. pramis. hay...

hirap magkasakit. i miss out on a lot. buti na lang flexi pa ang weeks na ito for classes. nareremedyuhan naman. so oks pa ang lyf.

anyway, on and off din naman ang pagpapahinga at on and off din ang pagkabagot. so kung bagot, of course walang ibang gagawin kundi manood ng sine.

some snapshots.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

or subtitled "hindi happy si harry huhuhuhuhu..."

yeah, this film didn't fly. as in. no nimbus 2000 broomsticks will help the film. no matter how much you shout "wingardium leviosa" wala pa ring lulutang diyan. hay. super. kainis.

i guess it has something to do with the writing and the directing, combined. the usual suspects were okay naman, especially the actors. the kids are now teenagers with throbbing libidos overtly shown (eg harry with cho chang) or subtly implied (eg hermione being seduced by being an outlaw). the usual crop of good british actors are in good supply (esp the ones we heart the most, emma "sense and sensibility" thompson as the divination teacher, gary "immortal beloved/bram stoker's dracula" oldman as sirius black, and helena "mary shelley's frankenstein/hamlet" bonham carter's bellatrix lestrange).

but maybe we have to backtrack a bit. have you read the book? it's freaking thick. as in the thickest piece of young adult literature i've read. and it's hard to pick the best parts to translate into film, because each chapter was written as a coherent unit that gets better as it develops. so if you just lift the essence without mentioning some details, hm...doesn't work well e. iba ang essence na mabubuo ng libro. like ni hindi nga na-establish masyado ang importance ng order of the phoenix, for one. and then yung family relations and angsts nina bellatrix at sirius. saka yung angst ni harry about family units, as usual. basta, ang dami. pero okay yung nag-focus sila sa training ng dumbledore's army. i think that's the only portion that worked well without having prior knowledge of the book's content. pero kung di mo nabasa ang book, baka feeling short-changed ka. well, lalo na kung nabasa mo, i suppose...

and the directing? well, the brit tv director is good with small, intimate scenes but not big ones, especially the ones with special effects and sa overall na pagtatahi ng mga eksena para maging cohesive unit ang buon pelikula. malabo men. brilliant moments naman niya ay napaka-british lang, i think. yung bang kind ng british scene na di mo alam kung drama ba yan, dramedy, heartwarming o comedy. yeah, brit cinema could have this quality madalas e. para bang guess the genre ang game, not unless overt ang artista mo na alam mo ang ginagawa like mr. bean's films. one nice scene is the one with the 3 kids in front of the fireplace at the griffindor lobby. the one where it just faded out with them laughing. ang natural lang ng approach. pero the rest, like the one na tinira ni voldemort si sirius at nung natamaan si sirius, hindi maganda ang framing at hindi nagawan ng sfx ng remedyo. kapag may special effects talaga ang eksena, mas mahirap i-shoot especially kung di mo alam ang hitsura ng effects na kalalabasan ng eksena. so kakulangan talaga ng direktor ito.

hay. i could go on and on about why i don't like this film. pero i won't na lang. i think you get the picture. but of course, like the rest of the world, i'll still read the next book and watch the next film. i want to know what happens next kasi.


NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

during one of my sleepless bouts with sickness, i caught this stupid film produced by mtv films on hbo. punyeta nakakainis. lahat sadyang nang-iinis -- yung storya ng isang parang simple minded pero may caustic wit na eengot-engot na loser bida na may equally nakakainis na kamag-anak, tapos static ang shots na okay alam ko sinusubukang ma-achieve ang isang comedic style pero it doesn't deliver. nagaganap lahat ito sa isang typical americanan small town. bata punyeta nakakainis siya panoorin. walang nangyayari at walang kuwenta.

so bakit ko pinanood? i still keep the thing i learned from carlitos siguion reyna years back when he said in our class na we also have to watch bad movies because we learn a lot from them, too. at tama siya doon. i wanted to see what kind of ending and story this kind of film will have. lesson learned: may reason kung bakit 2:30am ito sumasalang, so don't trust films that run at that time that much.


TRANSFORMERS

to cap my weekend, caught this one on the big screen. lesson learned: why oh why did we ever forget that if a film is directed by michael bay, we have to bring earplugs. as in. maingay siyang direktor. siguro bingi siya, like some filmmakers out there na kilala natin. ang ingay ng pelikula, considering na ang subject matter ay mga bakal na kumakalansing lagi. as in, ang ingay. tunog bakal lang.

per of course i have to see this film. it's a blast from my past, because i grew up watching the cartoon show of these characters. they got a lot of things right naman, like yung chracterizations ng robots, at panalo pala ang voice ni megatron dahil si hugo "the matrix/v for vendetta" weaving pala iyon. panalo. tapos yung special sound effects kapag nagta-transform sila, this time better version lang kasi parang nahaluan ng some kinda metallic techno sound. yun nga lang, tama sabi ng ka-date ko, na bakit di nila ginamit yung original theme song as part of the soundtrack. tama. ganda pa naman ng theme song niya, simple lang. parang like what they did with the spiderman theme song. dapat ganun.

oh well. nakakatamad lang panoorin ito kasi ang bagal ng story development. the first 40 minutes could have been chopped and reduced to 15 easy. pero they have to show a lot of the human back story crap pa. doesn't work men. plus they have to focus pa ba on a lot of the bang-klang-whoosh-blug scenes ng fight sequences? daming puwedeng i-edit, e. hay...


hm, not a good week for movie-viewing pala ini. hm. will wait for the next two weeks na lang. let's hope something nice comes out of the cinemalaya films. and some hollywood offerings.

*

some feedbacking.

thanks for the links locknlol.

thanks for the comment joyjoy. pero hm, sino si mig?

hm, thanks na rin dun sa isang comment kahit hindi ko siya ma-dig.

jojo sorry bout saturday. next time na lang coffee diyan ha.