Monday 6th of February 2012, week 06

Posts Tagged: Review

Entertainment — No Comments
1
Sep 09

District 9

District9Poster265_000Just a litle time ago I wrote a preview of the movie District 9 and showed off my great expectations for the movie. There were both concerns and expectations in my mind when I yesterday went to the cinema downtown and had the pleasure to watch it.

Most of the times I watch movis which I have been looking forwad to for a long time the eyes I see it with gets filled with ever more criticism. This makes movies like these sometimes loose a small portion of their glance because of the expectations that is needed to be fullfilled for it just to reach the surface. I was afraid that this would be the case with Districs 9 but I was happily surprised when the movie really did deliver a great show!

When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet. –MNU

Sharlto Copley (main antagonist) did an awsome interpretation of his character Wikus Van Der Merwe and the downfall of his personality was beautiful. If Van Der Merwe had been casted using a known actor I think that a great portion of the mocumentary-feeling of the movie would have been lost. The raw gruesome feeling was kept intact by disturbing images of war and terror which also did strengthen the feeling of the “mockumentary”.

I can greatly recomend the movie for all into sci-fi with a twist. A word of warning is needed though for the movie do include some really disturbing images and can be seen as upsetting. Already looking forwad of seeing it again as soon as it is released on Bluray!

Entertainment — No Comments
13
Jul 09

Into the wild

During the last week I have read the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer which is a story about a boy giving up his entire life to live a simple life in the wild. Christopher McCandless was the boys name and throughout the book Mr. Krakauer try to identify what is was that drove a more or less common boy to abandon his family and life without a feeling of remorse.

The book was written in a very simple language and the soul of the book remain in the story. After finishing it the reader is left with split feelings about who Christopher McCandless was. One way of looking at him shows an almost religious hunt for understanding. But on the other hand his hunt for answers did inflict massive amount of pain on his family and friends and I can not grasp the utter sadness it must be for a parent to lose ones child and not getting an explanation.

The story has also been made into a movie and whether you read the book or watch the movie I recommend you to do one of them. The story is sad but interesting and deliver questions for you to answer.

More information
Into the Wild at IMDB
Into the Wild at Amazon

Entertainment — No Comments
5
Jun 09

Terminator Salvation

So I just got back from the movie theater after watching Terminator Salvation. I am one of the people who didn’t really like the old Terminator movies but still am really fond of the back-story of the movies. Due to this I had quite high expectations for this movie because of other reviews I read which said that this was a movie not like the others. A bit darker interpretation of the mythology and also a bit more theatric instead of just plain action.

My first thought after the movie was done was that they did in fact show off to much of the movie in the trailers they have been showing both in movie theaters but also online and on TV. There are spoilers within the trailers that would have been better of if the audience were to discover them during the movie itself.

“The world is a bad place and there is really no light at the end of the tunnel…”

This aside though it is a quite good movie. As with most re-visited movies in the action genre now days the story has been darkened down a bit. The world is a bad place and there is really no light at the end of the tunnel, much like the latest Batman movies where they have totally revamped the story to be more raw. In short there are terminators everywhere and the war is raging on for the survival of the human race. Special effects are everywhere but the raw feeling make them blend in just fine. There is a number of flaws in the story itself where one can clearly see that they had to improvise to get the plot going which does lower the overall score of the movie.

terminator-salvation

Image is from The Internet Movie Database

Christian Bale really do pull of the role of John Connor and his charisma is great for the character and also Sam Worthington is doing a good job being Marcus Wright, not as strong as Bale but still good. Mr Bale was reluctant on taking the role for quite some time before shooting but I am glad that he did do it in the end.

To sum it all up, if you are looking for a good action movie which gives you mini-guns, swollen muscles and big explosions all mixed within a story of annihilation and judgment – this is a movie for you. Of course it makes the best appearance at the movie theater due to powerful sound and graphical effects.

Best part of the movie is the long consistent scene in the beginning of the movie which opens up the story and introduce John Connor. Beautiful piece of art created by a camera and backpack of GFX! The least appealing part of the movie I’d say is the poor way of telling the end of the story, which I am not to tell here, and it feels a bit like they ran out of time and had to wrap it all up in a bit of a hurry.

The flaws in the story is the major problem with the movie and what needed to be fixed for it to become a better movie then it was.

Technology — No Comments
26
May 09

Inkscape, an Illustrator alternative

Inkscape is an open source SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) editor. It has the functionality to create everything from simple to semi-professional work. The interface is clear to understand and easy to get started with. Personally I have quite little experience of Illustrator so the transition to new icons and tools went very smooth.

inkscape-screenWhen it comes down to creating vector graphics most people see Adobe Illustrator as the best (and only) tool to use. Often people get their hands on the application in school or at work but almost no one have the money to buy it to use back home. This is where Inkscape steps into the field.

Strengths
The biggest strength of Inkscape is that it is really easy to get started with and the interface works to help the user instead of scaring them. Also, the fact that the application is free to use make me happy.

Weaknesses
Weaknesses exist everywhere and Inkscape just as many other open source suffer from some performance problems. From time to time when I use it to create I all the sudden get into a state of lag. After a bit of consulting using Google I find that my problems seem to have a wider audience and quite a few other have the same issues. But this aside I also have a bit of a problem using layers in Inkscape, more then rarely I find myself adding objects to a layer which I wasn’t supposed to do.

Conclusion
Inkscape is a worthy alternative to Illustrator when one look at the fact that is is an free alternative. There are some issues which makes it hard to use in a commercial product-line but for amateurs and semi-professionals this can make do for most things you need to create vector graphics. I’d say four out of five, I really think that it is a great application. If it had not been a free application it would have received one plus less though due to the performance problems I’ve got.

plusplusplusplusFor more information and download links check out the Inkscape site.

Entertainment — No Comments
19
Feb 09

Die Welle, aka The Wave

I REMEMBER BACK IN SCHOOL quite some years ago, we got a book in our hands and about one week to finish it. The title of this book was The Wave and we all read and tried to analyze. Probably the understanding of the actual story in this book did not hit me until a few years later, I thought I understood it but I guess I didn’t.This old thought made me fire of one big smile when I found out that this story actually had been made into a movie. Had to see it.

THE MOVIE kept the story and the feeling as I remembered it, some parts of it was changed to better fit a visual interpretation of course. The Wave is about a teacher which is a warrior of the old reactive ways and his mindset of letting the kids understand how the world works. By setting up a one week project where he aims to show everyone how easy it is to be caught up in a dictatorship he cross the line of what a teacher actually should let his pupils do.

BY THE FACT that the movie also is a German production, set in Germany in our time, the question about if a people who were enslaved in about fifty years ago can be so blind that they fall into the same trap once again is perhaps more up-to-date today then in a long time. The world spins on and it is so easy to forget about old teachings and do the same errors over and over again.

I CAN RECOMEND The Wave for most people out there. If you are a teacher speaking of the power of a group this is a great tool of education. Or if you are a parent trying to explain to your child about how easy it is to be talked into doing things you never had done else; this movie is for you all.

You can find more information about the movie over at IMDB.

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