Summer is Coming!! And Here I Am to Get All The Prizes!!

Summer!!
Summer!!
Well, frankly my country, Indonesia, doesn't have 4 season. So there are no Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter. We only have Rainy and Drought. Kinda too bad, but I don't care much about this.

So what's this prize all about?
You see... Northern Hemisphere Summer season is the best 3 month in a year!! And why is that? Of course because of the damn long holiday and a great amount of it's companion! I'm talking about Summer Blockbuster, New Game, and new Anime!! Well, some of them is not really connected... The point is, I'm on holidays and have a plenty entertainment with me!

Let's talk about it one by one. Hmmm.... Where should we start? Ah, Summer Blockbuster! What do we have around here? Let's see... We have Splice, Toys Story 3, Inception, Despicable Me, The Last Airbender (which people said sucks), and a lot more!! (I'm too lazy to check my list so this will be all ;p) I've already watch Splice and Toys Story 3. Both were really Great! SPLICE is Science Fiction Thriller Character Driven Movie. While Toys Story 3 is a Story Driven with little Character Driven Movie. I plan to watch Inception this noon. People said it's a great movie. I hope they right...

Next is about New Game! I've been waiting for long holiday especially because of this. In normal days, I only touch my X-Box 360 on Saturday and Sunday, because I'm not at home on the other days. Now, in this holiday I've prepared quite number of games! Some of them are leftover from the other days, where I already bought them but haven't play them yet (My little brother is so lucky to have me as a brother...). I'm currently playing Ninety-Nine Nights 2 and Lego:Harry Potter Year 1-4. On my list are Resonance of Fate, Red Dead Redemption, Record of Agarest War, Toy Story 3, NIER, Transformer : War of Cybertron, Metro 2033, The Saboteur, Alien versus Predators, and Battlefield 2 : Bad Company... Fyuh, that's quite a lot. I'm not quite sure I can finish them all or not... Well, let the time tells then!!

The last one is about anime. I promised to give some reviews for Spring animes. I will try to do that. Meanwhile, the summer anime is already sailing on the port. They're here! Well, one thing to be happy is K-On!! S02 will have 26 episodes! That's mean it will be on the list until the end of Summer!! YAY!! So, we have some good animes for this summer. We have High School of The Dead, Amagami SS, Ookami-san to Shichinin Nakamatachi, and Nurarihyon no Mago. Those are already on my list with top Priorities. I haven't check on other titles yet, so I can't comment much on them. Expect me to watch them before next week...

You see? That's the prizes I'm talkin' about!! Hell yeah! Three Months of Holiday with one big Ship full of entertainment!! To make things more beautiful, I have something new on my room! Guess what? A brand new HD Ready 32" LCD TV!!! That's freakin' cool man!! I already try few animes on that and the result were awesome!! I will watch anime on that big screen for all holiday!! See, What else do I need? (Well, I do need a girlfriend right now (-_-))

Huff, that's all folks!!
Enough blabbering and go to sleep...
I'm damn sleepy right now...

So, This is Benard reporting to you! See ya on the next post!!!
AAAAAAANNNNDDDD CUT!!!!

Red-Gold-Metal Superhero is Back!!

Hey, long time no see eh?
Sorry about that. I'm busy with mid test and all.
Anyway, now I'm back and bringing you some fresh thing for you and only2 for you.

So today, after a long battle with those tests (which I still have another one on 5th), my friends ask me to go watch movie.
And so I watch it and decided to write a review on it.
So what is this movie that I watch?
Well, it's a great movie which Indonesia get a privilage to see it sooner, one week before worldwide release.
It's IRON MAN 2!!
(Hell, I bet you know already from the picture above)

The first movie get a good response. I don't know about the critics, but me and other fans certainly liked it and enjoyed it. So what about the sequel? Comic books, novels, and games adaptation often get bad result, if not on the first movie, on the sequel. Let's say Transformer, Twilight saga, Harry Potter(I still enjoyed it though), X-Men(I really hate the Wolverine:Origin), and more that I can't mention one by one. But, still... As a comic books lover, hardcore gamer, part-time writer, action freak, I still kinda enjoyed those I've mentioned before(errr, twilight not included). So, what about Iron Man 2? Well, if we're talking about me, I'll say Marvelous. But, we're talking about a big market, a worldwide movie goers. So my opinion is a bit different.

So, on the first movie we saw the birth of one of the famous Avenger member. We love this Red-Gold-Flying-Metal-With-Shiny-Thing-On-His-Chest super hero and we love how the first movie bring it out. Is the second brings us some great flavour about this Iron Man? The answer is yes. And for you comic lovers will be served with extra dishes around...

The story starts 6 months after the first movie. Between the time skip Tony had made peace for West-East war, doing this, doing that, and then become a celebrity. He then held a Stark Expo, where people can see the most advance and modern inventions from all of the greatest brain from all around the world. But, behind all of this, Tony has several problem, well every hero has at least one. Both of his problems seems ironic. The first one is about legal thingy. Apparently, the New York senator (who I don't bother at all to find out his name) doesn't like the fact that Tony had a WEAPON (which Tony declined and said it was High Tech Armor or somewhere around it). They even go as far as showing photos of what seems to be imitations of IronMan Armor taken by the all-seeing-lens of the sattelite to which Tony counter with videos of how awkward and miserable the imitation were (and seriously I pity them. That's what I'd like to call a "Perfect Blunder", especially the last video of Hammer Industries). His second problem is personal and only open to no one but himself. The Godly-Ultra-Power Arc reactor that's embedded on Tony's chest to keep his heart beating and powering his suit is actually has some drawback. First fact to known is that the Arc using Palladium as it's core, which extremely depleted and corroded after it's energy run out and thus need to be replaced. Thanks God Tony has tons of it (well, not literally). So what's the problem? Oh, not much of a threat. It's just that the Palladium start's to poisoning his blood. The more he used the Arc power, the more the poison rate is. When it reach high enough rate, nothing much will happen except his death. Beside that, there are another problems that outside of Tony knowledge. There was a man named Ivan Vanko who held a grudge on Tony because of something that I'm lazy to explained here. He has a blueprint of the arc (watch it if you want to know why) and build one of his own. He then show up in front of Tony with electric whips powered by the Arc Reactor on his hands....

Well, I won't spoil the fun. That's for some quick review. There's no more spoiler I will speak out. If you want spoiler, go to wikipedia. Basically the second movie will bring you the Fall of Tony Starks and also his Rise in one single movie. The story is decent but can be better with more tampering. Just as the first movie, the sequel also incorporate some comedy with the same style of the first one (which I really love). Hell, they even give out humorous scene on a serious battle part. They put it nicely and neat, so we can still enjoy the movie without questioning "what was that about?"

Robert Downey Jr. once again potrayed the eccentric-narcistic-multi-bilionaire Tony Stark. How I love him become Tony Stark. We still can see his selfishness, his sarcasm, and his style of giving out comments, with sarcastic humor of course. Don Cheadle takes over the role of Colonel Rhodey Rhodes. Rhodes scenes are not as much as last movie. Cheadle apparently can handle this role quite well. And also, please remember that on this sequel we will finally saw Rhodes as the WarMachine after his famous "Next Time, Baby!". A great addition to this movie eh?

How about the action? Well pal, you shouldn't even ask in the first place. There's fly BOOM shoot BOOM punch BOOM walk BOOM jump BOOM drive BOOM. Whenever you see a metal suit, whatever the occasion, whether there are enemy or not, expect a boom. The more suit on screen the more boom will be around. Especially with the appearance of Warmahine (which is really heavy-armed) you can expect more booms with him around. The Special and Visual Effect is also out of question. Remember the fascinating 3D holographic blueprint from the first movie? Well, bless the director, we can see it again here.

There are several scene on the movie that give us things from Marvel Universe. As you know, there were several instances that Samuel L. Jackson shown up as Nick Fury on several movies. But it seems Iron Man is a special Movie for this Nick Fury and his SHIELD. Firstly, SHIELD first mentioned on Iron Man. Secondly, Nick Fury get quite lengthy scene on the sequel. What more can we ask? A Red-Haired-Hot-Russian-Spy-Chick? GRANTED. Black Widow get's a role here on the Iron Man 2. She's potrayed by Scarllet Johansen, which I found out not quite suitable to play her. Natalie/Natasha Romanova/Romanoff aka Black Widow is supposed to have a Russian accent, which I like, but Johansen speaks with standard US accent which come with disappoinment for me and my friend.

There is a little joke which I can't stand to not laugh hardly. I will try to be as spoiler free as possible on this. When Tony created something on his house, he shipped many materials to his house. One of them is a very famous thing on Marvel Universe. When I saw it was taken out from the box, I said to my self, "OMG, isn't that ***********************?! What's Tony gonna do with it??" My head and heart are full of expectation and question. Then Tony grabs it and guess what? He used it only for something TRIVIAL!! Bang! My expectation turn into burst of laughter. Well, I keep the details for you to figure out. If you one of the Marvel fans. then I'm sure you can't not laugh on this part.

Okay, let's see....
Eccentric Billionaire? CHECK
Red-Gold-Flying-Metal? CHECK
Heavy-Armed-Flying-Metal? CHECK
Mysterious-Agent? CHECK
Electric-Whiped-Crazy-Man? CHECK
Blonde-Hot-Chick? CHECK
Red-Haired-Hot-Chick? CHECK
A-Lotta-BOOM? CHECK

Overall, this movie is a decent one, but still not as good as the first. I enjoyed it(well, I'm a big fan of Marvel) and like it. But, I believed that they can do better. So what do I say about this? Worthy to watch, action-packed, super-hero movie with humor as spice, but not quite worthy to rewatch. But, if you starving of a good high-tech-action, I really suggested this one.

Oh yeah, before you go, you maybe noticed that Marvel really likes to put post-credit scene that served as teaser or fan service, and Iron Man 2 is not an exception. I missed that part on the cinema today, but managed to find the video on youtube. The post credit gives us the scenery of a wasteland somewhere. Then we can see a car driven by a SHIELD Agent go to a crater. And then, guess what is on the crater? Mjolnir, folks! It's the Fu*k** Mjolnir!! If you don't know what Mjolnir is, it's a great Hammer wielded by a Norwegian God  who also a Marvel Super Hero, THOR! I know Thor will be around soon, but I don't expect to see Mjolnir this soon.

Well, That's for my review on this movie. Hopes you like it! After this, expect some review of several animes of this season. Among them will be K-On!! 2nd Season, Heroman, and Angel Beats.

This is Benard reporting, see you on the next post.
AAAAANNNNNDDDDDD CUT!!!!!!

Merantau Bisa Dijadikan Contoh

Wew, post kedua gw dalam waktu yg sangat berdekatan. Ini pertama kalinya terjadi loh! And I don't give a d**n.

So, hari ini gw n beberapa BNECers pergi ke CL buat nonton film Merantau. Actually I'm not quite into Indonesian movie. Tapi karna ad yg recommend nih film, gw jadi penasaran. Gw nonton dan gw sadar. Indonesia masih punya banyak potensial dalam bidang sinematografi. I've fed up with those so-called horror (w/ sexual content) or romantic comedy (again w/ sexual content) in Indonesia. I mean, let's see the fact. Gak cuma sex yg bisa dijual oleh film (pardon for the word), dan itu yg ditunjukin sama film "MERANTAU"


By mr_benz

Yuda (Iko Uwais) adalah seorang keturunan Minangkabau. Menurut tradisi, seorang pria harus pergi untuk merantau agar bisa menjadi pria sejati. Berbekal kemampuan silatnya, Yuda pergi ke Jakarta meninggalkan Ibunya (Christine Hakim) dan kakaknya, Yayan (Donny Alamsyah) dan berencana untuk mengajar silat. Sayang, ketika tiba di Jakarta, rumah yg seharusnya dia tempati sudah digusur dan pemiliknya tidak dapat dihubungi. Di tengah kebingungannya, dompetnya dicopet oleh Adit. Yuda terpaksa mengejarnya. Setelah Adit tertangkap, Yuda melihat Astri, kakak Adit, sedang disiksa oleh Jhoni, bos Astri. Yuda dengan mudah menyingkirkan Jhoni, namun hal itu membuat Astri kehilangan pekerjaan dan marah kepada Yuda lalu pergi dengan Adit. Yuda pun berkeliling mencari kerja, dan sempat dibantu Eric. Namun, berbagai hambatan yang menyangkut Astri selalu hadir di hadapan Yuda. Sekarang, tugas Yuda adalah menyelamatkan Astri dari bahaya.

Itu adalah sedikit sinopsis dari "MERANTAU". Mungkin di awal2 kita akan sedikit bosan dengan sisi drama film ini. Namun, setelah melalui kira2 setengah film, kita akan disuguhkan adegan2 action yg memukau (untuk ukuran film Indonesia, bahkan Asia Tenggara) yg menggunakan Silat Harimau. Adegan Action film ini cukup baik, dengan koreografi yg baik serta sinematografi yg menawan membuat adegan demi adegan tidak dapat kita lewatkan.

Tadi saya menyinggung soal sinematografi. Sinematografi adalah hal yg menurut saya salah satu dari aspek utama keberhasilan film ini. Dengan Gareth Evans (sepertinya WNA) di bangku sutradara, film ini memiliki penggunaan kamera yg luar biasa dibandingkan dengan film Indonesia lainnya. Kemampuan Evans memilih sudut serta cara pengambilan gambar yg cocok untuk setiap adegan menghasilkan scene2 yg membuat kita tetap duduk dan tidak ingin berkedip.

Film ini juga didukung oleh 2 orang asing lainnya, Mads Koudal dan Laurent Buson yg menjadi main antagonist film ini. Meskipun (kalau tidak salah) "Paku Kuntilanak" juga menggunakan WNA, namun "MERANTAU" memanfaatkannya dengan lebih baik. Koudal dan Buson memainkan peran mereka dengan cukup baik dan memamerkan kemampuan bela diri mereka. Salah satu dari mereka menggunakan Thai Boxing. Melihat Thai Boxing diadu dengan Silat merupakan suatu pengalaman tersendiri.

Musik yang disuguhkan juga pantas diacungi jempol. Slow untuk adegan drama dan Fast paced untuk Action Sequence. "MERANTAU" memberikan musik untuk Action Sequence yg somewhat feels like Indonesia banget. Musiknya benar2 memberi nuansa Silat yg mendebarkan. Untuk urusan Sound effect, terasa sedikit berlebihan. Setiap beberapa pukulan ke seseorang, terdengar suara patah. Apa semudah itu mematahkan tulang seseorang??

Beberapa kejanggalan pun tak luput dari film ini. Seperti tidak adanya orang lain di jembatan penyebrangan saat pertarungan, baju yg sama dipakai berhari2 tanpa terlihat kotor, container yg dikunci dapat dibuka hanya dengan ditarik, setelah Yuda kalah koq bisa jadi menang lawan musuh yg sama tidak lama kemudian. Yah, meskipun memiliki banyak kejanggalan seperti itu, tidak ada yang sempurna. Namun, bagi saya semua itu tertutupi oleh action sequence yg menawan dan dilengkapi dengan koreografi, stunt, special efek, dan permainan kamera yang memukau.

Overall, "MERANTAU" merupakan film yang sudah banyak jenisnya di dunia perfilman. Namun, untuk perfilman Indonesia, "MERANTAU" merupakan sebuah gebrakan. Film Action di Indonesia sangatlah jarang dewasa ini. "MERANTAU" menyuguhkan aksi dan ketegangan yg jarang dirasakan dari sebuah film Indonesia. Film ini layak dijadikan contoh dan panutan untuk membangkitkan genre film action di Tanah Air. Semoga film ini bisa menjadi pioneer film action Indonesia seperti "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" dulu.