TMNT

The story picks up from when Shredder is defeated and a year later after which a new threat appears on New York City.

The focus of the movie however is not on the villians. Instead they hardly make it an impression. The main focus is the turtles themselves or rather just Leonardo and Raphael.

Perhaps it's a long time. Like 17 years or 16 years already. Ask yourself this question if you watch the cartoon when you are young. What can you remember about the turtles?
Let's see:

Donatello is the inventor. It's the most obvious. His ability is featured countless of time.
Michaelangelo is the clown, the comedy factor, the pizza chef and the Happy Guy.
Leonardo is the leader. He leads. Hmmm. What does he do anyway? My impression of him is actually of a nancy. He doesn't fight that much to impress.
Raphel is the oddball. Seriously his name is a dead giveaway already. My impression of him is that we used to hold discussions in canteen break and someone said he was the most powerful one in combat. That wasn't prominent in fact.

I believe therefore the movie is a good chance to represent 2 of the "Not obvious" turtles (or the excuse I give the scriptwriter for giving Donatello and Michaelangelo a chance to be "Nonexistello".)

A year before, Leonardo is sent on a training session by master splinter to work on his leadership skills. In his absence, the Turtles are forbidden to get into crime fighting. Thus individual Turtles tried to occupied themselves to pass time. Donatello becomes a Tech Support while Michaelangelo gets into the party business. Raphael however becomes a vigilante by night, the Nightwatcher.

When Leonardo returns, Raphael who long enjoyed as a lone crimefighter resented the reinstallation of a commander. He also resent the fact that Leonardo is chosen to be the leader over him despite as Raphael believing himself to have the same capabilities to be the leader too.
All this boils down to the end with Leonardo having to fight Raphael on the rooftop.

You might be thinking why Leonardo can't tell Raphael from the Nightwatcher?Even Casey Jones can tell? That's the trick about relationship. Leonardo isn't gulliable. He is just an honest guy who never bothers to think outside the box when it comes to his brothers.

Proven that he is the better fighter, Raphael left Leonardo on the roof. With that leading to Leonardo's capture and eventually restored the Team Spirit when the Turtles band up to rescue Leonardo.

TMNT's only flaw lies in the lack of developement for it's own villian. A deadly mistake since the best of the heroes are brought out by strong, impressive villians. TMNT's are strong but lack of characteristic.

Recommend a Must Rental.

Ar Tonelico (PS2)

http://www.nisamerica.com/games/artonelico/

Oddly this game should be for the PSP. Really. If it isn't memory constraints or such, this is a pretty good game for those on the go. The dungeons are painfully straight forward, the 100% fleeing ability (I think. Since I never got a backlash for fleeing). You are not forced to do everything and you don't get penalised for a slight mistake. This is a very forgiving game (at least for me). The setup is so forgiving, leveling up is like some what non existant since you level so often, you don't pay attention to it some what like FF VIII.

The only thing you need to pay attention are:
- Weapons and Equipments. The best weapons are through Grathmelding which is the "usual mix the inventory" routine. Believe me, you can roughly ignore the rest of the other stuffs. A good equipment setup (enhancement..yes..insert so-so crystal effects) and you get thru any fights using just Blue Magic alone.
- Diving. Yes. It's going into your Reyvateil's cosmosphere (mind) and then create Song Magic (song bo brother!). AkA the Main Minigame which is the AVG. 3 Reyvateil to choose from and craft between 7 game endings. No SUPERHAREM ending however.

The rest are tibits. I complete it on 31 hours which is less than what I expected (45hrs is my ETA). I do think I lose out on alot of things.

Oh ya if you wish to complete your hymn collection, you do have to play about 2 times depending where you last saved. There's 2 variation of certain 2 hymns which is up to you to choose when you are at near end of phase 1 and start of phase 2 (misha or aurica mission).

Overall due to the AVG elements, everyone else other than the Reyvateils are cookie cutter stock characters. The storyline is fair. Standard without too cheesy (despite a good amount of sexual innuendo can either be viewed as yucky or sexy. LOL). Kind of Lyner, like how his name was pronounced in the game (LINER), straight forward. Good music with the Japanese vocals retained (but I played it with the English voiceovers. No. My ears didn't bleed althought there are the few mishaps going on). Highly recommend for gamers who are lazy and got 2 hrs a day to play games. Strongly recommend for gamers who got enough with epic titles that takes you 99 hours just to see a generic happy ending.

Red Garden Ep22 (It's The End isn't it?)

http://anime.excite.co.jp/redgarden/index.html

Having their cover blown and with Herve as the head of the Doral, leads to a final confrontation of the Doral with the Animus. Age old rival clans battle it down for the other accursed tome in an ultimate showdown. What else you want for a conclusion?

They managed to tone down the "extra physics" dished out over at episode 16 (Sorrowful Lies), an episode which nearly make the show jump the shark, having unbelievably bad fighting scenes,bad animation. It's the "THAT's IT!!!I want OUT" moment.

However it's the last episode and like some weird GONZO tradition and if you find they like been cutting budget for the last few episodes, this is where they will surprise you with fluid animation and some tiny little nitnacks that will make the whole presentation go up by at least a level.

Bitter rivalry always is the key to setup showdowns. Kate and friends managed to band up together against Herve who was amazingly unguarded, unarmed and burdened (carrying Anna and the Tome). Well, he is considered a "Boss" character so a little handicap can up that status quo. Having bashing Doral beasts, there's still the LOL moment of a repeated joke when Rachel beats a stick clubbing Herve from behind then looking stunt when that offense didn't work. And that Rose went down before doing any moves. There's a lot of tongue lashing between Kate and Herve that actually serves no purpose. Deeper reading suggested that maybe Herve did had a soft spot for Kate just like he had for Lize. It's all too late so let's kill each other.

The order of the day is that when you got all that bombs going off at bridge, co-ordinate infiltration and standard blacksuits, you ought to get body guards. Did Herve ever played Dynasty Warriors???? I guess not.

That's why he got dig in by Lula from behind while in his all Megalomaniac moment of non-stop muttering of "I am so gonna be satisfied when I am done with you (seriously?Is it better than SEX?)" nonsense. Hmmm. Tasty. Herve is mortally wounded but Lula is seriously DUSTED so he quickly left having like suddenly remembering his sister got like ZERO SECONDS BEFORE TURNING INTO AN ANIMAL.

So God Bless Herve when he about bled to half dead when his sister woke up and find fresh meat next to her. Yum. The sound effect is awful when Herve embrace Anna to her death. It's an awful scene, the sound effect is HORRIBLE, killing off any empathy for a sorrowful moment of despair. They ought to drown the sound with the sad soundtracks (which comes a plentiful as turn up in their OST)and then some focus and panning. They didn't. So ya. It's awful. Then again it's the last episode.

So with the Tome set back to where it belongs, the Animus Elders will be getting their wishes granted (DEATH) while Kate and friends (Clare, Rose and Rachel with Lize... unfortunately everyone else is DEAD apparently) embarks for Immortality (and eventual total lose of their memory). Happy ending?

Hey wait....which body will be awake? The one in the coffin?Or the cold avatar which they had been dragging around for 22 episodes? Technically it doesn't matter (remember. IT'S THE LAST EPISODE). What about Lize????OHMYGOD. She turns to ashes and revealing the secret of the show's title.

Red Garden.


Yes. The end. Then they throw the biggest FUCK YOU to viewers after the credits finishing.

HAPPY ENDING? Never after!!!!LOL. OVA starts on August '07. FUCK YOU back GONZO.

What Art Movement Are You?

You Are Pop Art

When it comes to art, you're definitely not a snob. You can appreciate the mainstream aspects of culture, even if you need to twist them a bit to make them your own. Whether you're into comics, retro pinups, or bold colors, you embrace what's eye catching and simple. As far as most other art goes, you consider it a little too elitist and high brow for your tastes!

What Art Movement Are You?

How Rare is your Personality?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Played Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army (PS2)

http://www.atlus.com/devilsummoner/

I can't tell since when that I skipped acclaimed stuffs for niche titles like the SMT titles.

Devil Summoner: RKvSA is a chip of the old block with some spins threw in.
Is it really an actioner?
Yes. Hit a few buttons and just chop chop chop (and shoot) in hmmm...4~5 moves??? in a quite small arena with a demon partner. Considering the heritage of the SMT series, quite a hefty of familiar faces returns.

Then there's the issue of difficulty. SMT: Noctune was so overly sadistic that anything seems wussy. Except this gets somewhere between brain numbing easy and slap in your face hard. The lenght of the game lies between 30+ hours (I attempted the game skipping some minor sides and 1 MAJOR SIDE in 35hrs with only like 5~6 game overs.) and is short if you compare to RPG titles of these days.

However I don't really considered this as a normal RPG taking that the storyline progression gives you a linear progress. If the encounter rate is anything like Ar Tonelico (review later), man, the game might be even shorter. It's more a digital novel concept. Each chapter's lenght varies according to what's the objective and there's even a chapter which is short like 0.5~1hr. The enjoyable part is that while the map is pretty small, the amount of unrewarding sides do take away the dullness of slashing and shooting.

Here's the skinny (or the fatty. Depending on how you look at it) on the storyline.

It's the year Taisho 20 and the capital of Japan has a new champion, Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. Having proven of this title after his training, he was assigned to work with a PI called Narumi who will assist Raidou in keeping the Capital safe from the Supernatural along with a guardian that took form of a cat called Gatou. However the latest assignment brought in by Kaya,a strange girl which might just be their last.

It's almost one track, solving the kidnap of Kaya and the mystery surrounding it. Script is almost like a real novel except for sequences that simply says go there, bring this to another place and then bring it back and then talk to that guy and it goes on.

The inventory system sucks since they keep a cap on the items (healing item? Max: 9pcs) however the reward comes in pretty easy as the progress and of course the drawback is there so that you need to exploit the fusion system regularly (which led me to believe this game...is a part of the plan to drew new players in the whole SMT franchise). However up till a certain amount of progress, somehow it's possible to skip the most fun (yet tedious) part if you just want to complete. If you want to complete your demon collection, you might be spending like up to 45hrs or more I guess.

Replayability is a low since the expansion isn't up by a notch to motivate and it hardly impress anyone to play it continous for the second time. However the game is fresh because it moves fast and if you love games that moves with a simple storyline that isn't some epic RPG, this is the title. Then again. Random encounter is a pain and let's say the encounter rate can be annoying.

quiz: wat soul r u

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connected to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

An Emo MEME ( i suppose)

(taken off from Hajime/pigsky's. Proof of Reading. LoL)

01. Have you ever tried to cut yourself?
Papercut!!!Seldom.
02. Have ever attempt to commit suicide?
I 'banzai charged' at enemies in games. Does that counts???
03. What did you intended to do then?
Do what?Myself?Nah.I am not christian. If I do myself, I wouldn't be going to
hell.
04. Why didn't you do it?
Because there's more life to be wasted. Life should be for the rush. Not in a
rush.
05. Have you ever try knocking your head against the wall?
Yup. It feels ok.
06. Have ever try to hit yourself?
Yes. That's when I am training for an "Iron Vest".
07. Drank detergent before?
Nah. But soap taste ok.
08. Fell into drain?
No. I get into drain more often than falling into it.
09. Experience before of being almost drown?
Nay.
10. Seen an accident before?
Ya. He got run down. Classmate of mine.
11. Slapped by someone before?
Other than parents.....some but I forgot their names.
12. Slapped someone before?
Never. Slapping is NOT COOL. Unless I want to be in a HEAT SITUATION.
13. What ended your last relationship?
I dumped her.
14. What made you smile today?
MacDonalds.
15. What were you doing this morning at 8a.m.?
Having a dream which I screamed at someone.
16. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
MacDonalds.
17. Something that happened to you in 1985?
Masa masa with the girl next door. She got married (not to me)
and 3 kids (not with me) now.
18. Your prom night?
WtF is THAT?
19. Last thing you said aloud?
A MCSPICY meal TO GO!
20. Last thing someone else said aloud?
A MCSPICY meal TO GO!
21. Worst thing currently on television?
Not happening yet.
Joanne Peh will going steady with David Jiang in that Doctor show.
KIss my fucking fat white ass HELL NO!!!!
22. What was in the mail today?
I never check my mail.
23. How many different beverages have you drank today?
2. The essential water and coke.
24. What is your favorite part of the day?
The part where I wake up with a warm babe lying next to me. (It never happened).
25. Your to-do list for tomorrow?
Do the laundary. Mum is out of country.
26. Least favorite place to shop?
I don't really shop. Ok. Tampines central.
27. Last thing you bought?
Mcspicy meal upsize.
28. Funniest thing you heard all day?
We need the stocklist by Friday.
29. Funniest thing(s) you've said today?
Sure you get the stocklist by Friday.
30. What color is your front door?
Pink. Bandung Pink.
31. Beautiful Is :
a Concept to Oppose Mundane and Ugly.
32. Describe your keychain:
A fucking O ring.
33. Where do you keep your change?
In my pocket.
34. What kind of winter coat do you have?
Come and feel it. It's warm and nice just before my chest.
35. What was the weather?
It's like last march just more rain.
36. Last ice cream flavor you tasted?
Vanilla.
37. Last rainbow you saw?
The sky at last rainbow.
38. Something you are excited about?
Packing up and closing down.
===============================additional by me===============================
39. Last porn watched?
They look all the same.
40. Lose cool online?
Not yet.
41. Something silly you read online?
Someonesuspected2bafag: KON (guy) take it off.
KON: Take what off?
42. Kissing skill?
I rate myself R. R for Raw.
43. Visual Kei is
Overrated.
44. Carbon copy VK is
Holy Blasphemy.
45. Joining a Band to play dress up but no play gig is
An insult to all musicians and intellects to all sheeps of better dressed bands.
46. VK kopicat sing Hokkien old school is
7th month arrive too early.
47. Hokkien Death Metal is
Not VK. It's just random wailing except in hokkien.
48. Nose in hanky
because of running nose.
49. Keeping your style means
compromising my sense of good fashion.
50. Good art on a piece of crap paper
means elevating the status of the honest crap paper.


Please don't copy wholesale lest you want good people of bad nature to bad mouth yourself leading to a situation whereby I will be blamed for your bad fortune.

Watched: Letters from Iwo Jima

The Other Half to Flags of Our Fathers.

The first movie tells about the story of the Invaders (or rather the Away team) and how the planting of a flag on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi affects the War and back home. I didn't watch it so I probably couldn't draw a straight to back contrast and comparison.

Letters from Iwo Jima is the story of the Defending Party (the Home Team). Where as the flag planters lives and tell their story in glory, the Japaneses of this war lies buried, voice muted to, their tales folded in envelopes until found by a team of archaloegoist in 2005.

The film is not 100% historically accurate so view it with an open mind.

If something like this is made by the Japanese, the media from all over the world (especially South Korea and Taiwan. PRC don't talk. They ban) will have a field day on the pro-militant side of Japan. Fortunately it's made by Clint Eastwood and probably no one contest about the Japanese portrayal that much.

Watched: Epic Movie

Much that I didn't want to write about but paying $9 to watch it...justify me a need to write it.

What's Epic Movie all about??? Epic Movie is a result of the Scary Movie and Date Movie heritage. However being NC16 means it's limited on certain things (how a rating makes a movie? It makes helluva differences.).

While having only one main plot over in the previous Movie(s), Epic Movie take it upon them to interweave 2 main plot upon them, something which is a NoNo for a real "Epic" movie.

Basically they weaved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Narnia as a main line (althought Narnia is the main line).

Story starts with the origin of the 4 protagonists finding the Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket:
- Lucy (the dumbshit) 's origin is a parody of The Da Vinci Code
- Edward's is of Nacho Libre
- Susan's is of Snakes in the Plane althought there's a snide at Bradangelina's Adoption of Children and Paris Hilton
- Peter's of X-men 3 (with the compulsary Carmen Electra Moment) + Typical High School Movie involving Geeks trying for the Golden Jock's Gal.

Assembling the orphans after, Willy Wonka enslaves the Orphans to express his true colours...the Orphans are ingredients for his Chocolates and Candies!!!! As Willy Wonka is heard from afar, the 4 dash for a place to hide from him (a setup to of course for the Narnia parody).

Dumbshit Lucy ,having all the hiding places taken, scurry off to a room with, what else?, a large wardrobe.

Thus the story takes to the Gnarnia (pronounce with a silent G) setting.

From there the story moves a cow pace drawing references to Pirates of the Caribbean, MTV programme Cribs, Punk'd, Harry Potter, Superman Returns and alot more.

Viewed singular gags by themselves is good. As a movie???Not so much. The problem is with the transition as well as predictibility yet without the SHOCK and AWE required. You might see something coming in but will it hit it harder than it seems? Some of the gag is took too long and the movie lost it's way unlike the earlier Movie faeces.

Watched : Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider's looks and design is more known to the public than his origin and storyline. Henceforth the movie is given quite ample space to butcher and create a "movie" Ghost Rider.

The premises is simple. Man make pact with the Devil. Man was tricked but force to act for the Devil. Man fear the Devil will take away everything he loved. He ran and left love behind.

That's whats on the begining. A very smooth transition to foretell a tale of Regret and Lost and Burden. Young Johnny Blaze fled from Roxanne out of fear and remorse.

Over the years, Johnny Blaze performed daredevil jumps that no one dares to attempt and cheated Death as Mephistopheles (explaination later) kept him alive by his pact.

On the anniversary of his father's death, he made a personal tribute to his father. Here he was given the sign he was looking for : redemption. Meeting Roxanne after all these years again, sparked his hope that "perhaps, he finally overcome his fears".

However, Mephistopheles once again required a bounty hunter to do his dirty deeds. Blackheart, his son, had came for a contract which might help him to overthrow Mephistopheles. The contract, of a thousand souls, was cheated from Mephistopheles as the last incarnation of Ghost Rider rode off with it. Mephistopheles was afraid that Blackheart might be able to defeat him with this extra leverage thus finally awakened the Ghost Rider in Johnny Blaze.

Just when he thought he no longer had to fear.

Night time came and in the presence of evil, the Ghost Rider awakes.

The first night of the new Ghost Rider left trails of destruction and mayhem. The police placed Johnny Blaze for the murder of the nightman and others murdered by Blackheart. Johnny Blaze also didn't go for the "redeeming date" with Roxanne and on top of that, he woke up and felt like "as if my head was on fire".

Arrested and taken for detention prove too difficult for Blaze as the night comes. Breaking out of jail with a new jacket(in joke. References to probably Terminator.), Blaze continue to seek out Blackheart. In pure cheesy Kungfu movie/videogame style, Blaze fought another Hidden (there's 3 of them. He killed the Earth fellow on night 1) after a seemingly relentless pursue by the police. Roxanne saw firsthand of Johnny Blaze as the Ghost Rider. Blaze fled once again from Roxanne.

Roxanne return to Blaze's apartment, believing the "hocus pocus" that Blaze told her, earlier on, was true now that she witness it. Blackheart took off with her before Blaze when he returned from the Graveyard he took refuge in. Given no choice, Blaze went to seek the Contract from the caretaker. The caretaker turn out to be Carter Slade, the Ghost Rider who took the contract. He took the last ride accompanying Blaze to San Venganzas, the place to claim the souls, where Blackheart awaits.

The rest of it is purely predictable based on what I typed previously. In accounts, this movie isn't intending to go on the "mythos" aspect. Rather it's an action flick with a superhero + supernatural element. It is simple to understand cinema feature.

Design of Ghost Rider is simply a transition from print to screen. It's not exactly Johnny Blaze design more of an updated Dan Ketch. The Hellbike is more focused on with a remarkable transformation scene. Movie Ghost Rider had the penance stare, a move that used to be uniquely Dan's. Hellfire can change according to moods. This particularly showcase in the part where Ghost Rider stood before Roxanne.

Villian designs are fairly good except they were pretty predictable, especially in certain aspect. Meaning their weak points are fully open waiting for Ghost Rider to touch them. Mephistopheles is not considering a villian, more a plot device.

Mephistopheles is used rather than the Mephisto name. Perhaps it's enforce that it's really a Devil rather than a cosmic entity which went around getting "bargain" souls (he takes but he rarely pay up or in full). His alignment is strangely NOT EVIL at the moment. Perhaps a willingness to exploit him in detail for the next movie.

Eva Mendes's moments are brief and for a female friend to tell me, she's there only because to showcase her cleavage. In fact the acting are quite the norm, Mendes's part is like what she was in Hitch and there's nothing to TEST her acting genes.

Nicholas Cage is perhaps underacting due to a script that is....well..simple.

Do remember that the Rider rides again. The next movie should due '08 or '09. Typical of Avi Arad.