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Today, I finally proved to Pat that not all the movies I pick suck. Okay, it’s true that I do have a bad history of choosing crappy movies at a whim, such as Dead People–some “horror” movie from New Zealand where nothing happened–and Kingdom of Heaven, which went absolutely nowhere. But today I was triumphant when I said that The Island would be worth watching! One point for me.

For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer, The Island is about a society in a total institution set in 2019. When I say “total institution” I mean (a term I stole from my Sociology book to make me sound smart and clever) that every sphere of social life is supervised and standardized. Er, in other words, think Lois Lowry’s The Giver. All the people in this society cling their hopes onto one dream, and that dream is to be chosen to go to the island, the only remaining paradise in a world that has been destroyed by a contamination. But then one guy (Ewan McGregor) discovers that there is no such thing as an island after all, and all hell breaks loose.

Okay, the truth is, I wanted to see The Island for Scarlett Johansonn, who I think is a total screen goddess. I know she doesn’t do any blockbuster films, and which made me very adamant about seeing this in spite of my low expectations and Pat’s objections. As I had just mentioned, the movie’s premise sounds a lot like that of The Giver’s, and I already braced myself for the trite message about how the individual should question the society he lives in and the systems that control him, blah blah blah. But unlike The Giver, which ends with the protagonist escaping the community, there is an exciting and unexpected twist to The Island’s plot, which I shall not reveal because I am a nice person (unlike everyone who gave spoilers to that Harry Potter book). Then a lot of car-chasing, shooty-shooty action happens, which I intitially thought was useless but later on realized that it helped emphasize how badly these two people wanted to live.

Overall, I thought the whole story was well-done and intelligent but at the same time, it doesn’t needlessly fuck with your mind with so-called “philosophical insights”, “moral dilemmas”, and “societal issues”. Even the technical aspect impressed me a lot–I loved the camera shots and the soundtrack, and yes, Scarlett Johannson’s performance was wonderful. I actually didn’t spot any faults, but that’s all right since I never watch movies to pick on it. This is actually how I think every movie should be treated. Just go watch The Island to have a great time, unless you’re an actual bigot who thinks that everything has to be meaningful and scientifically-accurate because you’re just so deep like that. Then you probably won’t like it.

Trailers and posters proclaim that “One will be bad, four will be fantastic.” The plot is essentially about a bunch of scientists who got hit by cosmic radiation while working at a space station, and then later discover that they now have superpowers. Sounds like a movie that fantastisucks. I admit that I almost didn’t want to see Fantastic Four this afternoon but it was either that, Monster In Law (Jennifer Lopez. No.), or War of the Worlds (which didn’t really appeal to me). If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that you can’t judge a movie by its trailer, posters, or your preference for DC comics over Marvel.

Even as a comic book, Fantastic Four is a very character-driven story. If the F4 movie had bad actors I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie as much. The plot in itself is simple and straightforward, and while every single event made sense and contributed to the story’s development, that alone doesn’t make for a very exciting superhero movie. But the four actors–yes, including Jessica Alba–had such great chemistry that they not only portrayed their roles convincingly; I could see from their bantering that they were all having a great time doing what they were doing. The humor was clever without sounding like they were trying too hard to be smart, and there were, thankfully, no cheesy lines. Oh, and the special effects were great. I loved the way Victor Von Doom looked so imposing and threatening in his iron mask and green cloak. The only minor disappointing thing was that there were no gadgets. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d pull off the Fantasticar.

Minor disappointment aside, Fantastic Four is definitely the best superhero movie I have seen so far. 4.5/5 Apparantly, the cast already signed up for another F4 movie. I am so looking forward to watching that.

Disclaimer: I wrote this entry because I spent an entire weekend writing a paper on the wire-tapping scandal (Hello Garci tapes) involving our president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Who in their right mind would be in a cheerful and optimistic state of mind after analyzing the situation instead of, say, going to the movies? I would like to make it very clear that my purpose for writing this entry is not to convince people to agree with me; I am simply ranting. I disabled the comments option because I do not wish to discuss nor debate my political views with anyone else, and I would appreciate it very much if you do not send me an e-mail about what you think. That will just get me all riled up again, thus defeating the purpose of having a blog to let out steam. Thank you.

After 19 years of apathy and indifference, I am now up to my ass in politics and people calling for President Arroyo’s resignation and I am incredibly pissed at how stupid the people of this country are.

All week I would tell anyone who would listen that what this country needs is a dictatorship. I mean, look at us. We’re a bunch of undisciplined fuckers who can’t even drive without giving somebody else a heart attack. What we need is a vision of what this country should be, and maybe some secret police to make us realize this and whip us all back into shape. But then I realized that ever since the People Power Revolution of 1986, people take to the streets at the smallest sign of corruption and injustice, as though a collective demonstration would solve all of these problems. Come to think of it, we’re not really a democracy–we’re an ochlocracy (government by mob or a disorganized mass of people). But going back to dictatorship, there isn’t anyone I trust to assume complete rule of the country. Name somebody in the government who won’t do what Marcos did. So there goes the whole dictatorship idea. And short of genocide, I can’t really think of any drastic action or form of government that can make things right for this country.

What really irritates me about the whole thing is that I can’t believe how these so-called defenders of democracy are so pissed off over a fucking tape. Don’t they realize that they’re contradicting themselves by clamoring for GMA’s resignation? The Constitution states that everyone, including the President, is entitled to due process of the law. There hasn’t even been an investigation of the tapes and now they want her gone with Noli de fucking Castro as president. Because it’s the “right thing to do”. Let’s see if you’re all still happy about doing the right thing when prices skyrocket because of this incompetent fucker.

I guess what I’m trying to say, besides WE’RE ALL DOOMED, is at least have more than an illegally-obtained tape recording before screaming for blood.