All Posts By

Jay E. Tria

Movie Review

Review: Man of Steel

Posted on June 17, 2013

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First time I heard about the reboot I had to climb into my brain to figure out what exactly was so wrong about Superman Returns. Wiki was quick to remind me that it had a solid story and a strong cast, and it turned out–as it always does–to be about the money, or rather lack thereof. Well WB shouldn’t worry about this new outing. And from what I have seen and despite a few things I have heard, Man of Steel definitely deserves its box office receipts.

With Zack Snyder and Chris Nolan at the helm I knew I am not to expect a god-of-thunder-meets-metal-man type flick. There will be no bright colors, no script peppered with wisecrack-y jokes–although Man of Steel had its charming taps at humor. The movie digs deep into Superman’s origins the way no one has dared to before, and that is where it anchors its success. For a comic book hero who was born special, invulnerable, how else can people relate to him than to see him falter, shaken, in all means vulnerable? Here we see the man at his weakest, second guessing his every step, and it is from there where he emerges at his strongest. Built on a strong foundation of noteworthy actors, not excluding the silently charismatic Henry Cavill, the film succeeds in this feat.

As with any other movie, Man of Steel met its own share of hiccups. There were so many facets of Kal-el‘s past and present that Snyder wanted to show, and it is easy to see the seams where they were patched together. I could have seen more of Amy Adam‘s brightly feisty Lois Lane, and a lot less of the fight sequences that totaled at least one city and one small town. Those two hours were far from smooth sailing, but it aced it in sheer entertainment value.

And lastly, because I am of the female persuasion, I just really have to put down in writing that Henry Cavill was just breathtakingly fine. That shy unassuming smile on that chiseled jaw would be the death of me. As the small military lady said, “he’s hot,” and really, somebody had to say it.

Click for a sneak peek below. If you haven’t seen it–twice–you really should.

Photo and video credits to owner.

Life and Lemons

Things I Look Forward to Post-STRAMA

Posted on June 16, 2013
freedom

RUN! To FREEDOM!!

This week is Independence Day week, for both my small but proud country the Philippines, and with a lot of work, luck and God’s special grace, for one small but proud student (*waves hand in the air*) who has long been struggling to finally FINALLY get her hands on her MBA. The long dark tunnel feels like it is closing in as D-day approaches, thus this list is written in efforts to focus on that small spot of bright light at the end. Lotsa things to look forward to:

1. Not spacing out inside another pocket of stress and anxiety.

2. Reading something else apart from my STRAMA book, news excerpts, annual reports and BSP statistics.

3. Think about something completely unrelated to my topic company.

4. Watching movies.

5. Updating my iTunes.

6. Watching dramas.

7. Looking at my planner and seeing nothing planned for the next few weeks. No, months.

8. Letting my poor hardworking laptop rest.

9. Waking up in the morning and not panicking about the shit load of work that still needs to be done.

10. Not panicking and not worrying, in general (this one is easier said than done, but–).

11. Going to see my dentist, and possibly an eye doctor. And possibly a pain-in-the-back-and-shoulders doctor, and a doctor for stress-testing.

12. Remembering who my friends are. Literally.

13. Karaoke.

14. Dusting off my growing fiction pile.

15. Quiz night.

16. Deleting my geeky tabs and resurrecting my fun ones.

And of course (say it with me, Disney style), a better, brighter future. Wink wink.

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Author’s note: I’m a big superstitious wuss. I didn’t publish this until after the defense for fear of jinxing it. Now I can officially say I AM GRADUATING. I woke up today; first thought was: “shet, STRAMA”. Next thought was: “uy, pasado na”. Then I smiled. Then I realized I had nothing urgent to do today. Cue happy dance. Praise God 🙂

Music Dance and Lyrics

LSSing: When I’m Gone (Cups)

Posted on June 13, 2013

Originally by Lulu and the Lampshades, but quite fun when done by Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect. I can try to sing the song but that cup trick thing requires hand-eye coordination I can’t hope to achieve in this lifetime.

You’re gonna miss me by my hair
You’re gonna miss me everywhere, oh
You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone

Movie Review

Review: Epic (2013)

Posted on June 9, 2013

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This movie had a really great trailer. A sweeping view of the forest as the camera zooms to follow a Leafman, scored with a great song that sounds like something Deathcab for Cutie would do. This snippet of the adventure continued as the film rolled, starting the story of MK (Amanda Seyfried), a 17-year old girl presumably visiting her estranged father Professor Lombard (Jason Sudeikis). The eccentric professor could not be too bothered by the reappearance of his daughter as he is in the middle of proving the existence of tiny little people in the forest surrounding his home. Yes. Tiny little people. Good thing he was not crazy because they do exist! And are in fact waging war to protect the balance of the forest. The Leafmen keep the dark Boggans in check from polluting the forest with rot and decay. But the Boggans led by Mandrake (voiced by the sinister Christoph Waltz, of whom I will now forever be frightened of) see a hole in the defenses as the Leafmen’s Queen Tara (Beyonce) engages in an elaborate once-in-a-hundred-years’ ritual to choose a pod that will be her heir. The Boggans attack, killing the Queen, and she falls just as MK runs to the forest. The human girl shrinks to tiny people size, and guess who’s not laughing at her father’s crazy now.

The adventure continues as MK together with head Leafman Ronin(Colin Farell. IKR, weird) and rogue, irresponsible, insensitive (okay, he made penance in the end) younger Nod (Josh Hutcherson) and pod-caretakers Mub (Aziz Ansari) the slug and Grub (Chris O’Dowd) the snail journey to protect the chosen pod, just as Mandrake continues his pursuit.

The story is elaborate and convoluted enough to make for a rich Pixar movie experience, or a shambled pile of unorganized plot lines. And it pains me to say Epic scores somewhere in the middle. In my initial disappointment, I was quick to surmise that maybe I’m just too old for movies with talking slugs and tiny people. But I have enjoyed my fair share of Pixar and Disney outings, so that can’t be it. The movie had its healthy share of laughs (slug humor at its finest), tears, PG romance, and tense intense action scenes. But throughout the 102 minutes of film I sat there biting my lip for more. More jokes, more moments, more coordination maybe. Just, more. For one, quite a few things were left unclear. I mean, was I the only one curious about what happened to MK’s mother and more importantly, to poor sweet Ozzie the dog? Beyonce’s Queen Tara was likewise either underdeveloped, miscast or both, apart from other nitpickings I tried to swat away. As one critic pointed out, the movie lacked the usual special-ness of a Pixar film, and although I did not march angrily back to the ticket booth for a refund, I was sad the movie was not epic as promised.

Photo credits to owner.

Life and Lemons

Versatile Daydreamer?

Posted on June 9, 2013

An award? MOI? Haha just practicing the acceptance blog post. But in any case, it really is undeniably cool to open your dusty email one morning and see a post nominating you for something. So thanks, Real Living Beauty! I am happy to have made a beep-beep in your radar as a:

versatile-blogger

And here I thought I was just randomly spewing out thoughts in cyber space. Haha. Honestly though, this blog started as an online diary (bad idea) and transformed into a creative outlet of sorts (better idea). As most introverts can attest, my mind is a busy, noisy place of thoughts, opinions, ideas and daydreams, bustling like an airport during holiday season that I felt a gripping need to assume some form of control through writing. I love to write. Thus, this blog 🙂

So lifted from Real Living Beauty, here are The Rules of a Versatile Blogger:

1. Make a post about the award.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself or your blog.
3. Link to 15 other blogs (ideally with less than 200 followers) that you enjoy and that haven’t gotten the award before (if they have, it’s usually posted in their blog side bar).
 
7 Random Facts
 
Not so long ago, I played willing victim to the Twitter trend of #100factsaboutme, less because I felt people are dying to know but more because it was a good exercise on self-reflection. It’s nice to play this game again:
1. I am a leftie living in a world of righties. There was a scary statistic somewhere that said us lefties would die sooner because of this inconvenience, but apart from slight cramps every now and then and having to lift my wrist and elbow off the whiteboard to prevent erasing what I’m writing, I feel pretty good.
2. I love soundtrack music. I have embarrassingly zilch downloading knowledge. So if my sister isn’t feeling charitable enough to update my iTunes, the best place to go is movie OSTs. Memorable finds: Pitch Perfect’s When I’m Gone, New Girl‘s I Always Knew, The Runaway’s Cherry Bomb.
3. I need to read up a movie’s plot on Wiki while I’m watching it on cable/DVD. I don’t know why. I just have to. I hate suspense.
4. I still think FRIENDS was the best sitcom ever.
5. I have a growing, possibly illogical distrust of Apple products since Steve Jobs died.
6. I plan to challenge my brain soon and be quadrilingual. That should make travelling to Japan and SKorea easier.
7. I love rooting for strong fiction/movie/TV females, i.e. Jessica Day, Pepper Potts, Katniss Everdeen, Bella Swan as portrayed by Kristen Stewart, Daenerys Targaryen, Hermione Granger, Becky Bloomwood every time she succeeds over her shopping addition.
 
15 Underrated, Very Fun, Very Smart Blogs
 
Some blogs exist not to make money from Google, not to spark fame, and not to be a blog-celebrity. Though I bear such bloggers no grudge, it is the less promotional, underrated ones that I feel deserve your attention:
 
Owl House Cats
 
Hmmm having a hard time compiling up to 15. Most of the good ones I know are already triple to more times 200 followers. Will update! Pinky promise! 🙂