TV - Heroes

Just watched the season finale of NBC's Heroes, and what a great show. Even though some parts are not what people are expecting due to the way the story had to be written, it was still a great ending. Can't wait for the filler Heroes: Origins and the next season to start again in September 2007.

The last few episodes, that were used to build up to the season finale (ep 21-23), were very entertaining, and so were ep 21-22. I enjoyed them (plot, directing) more than I had for Lost season 1.


The final Showdown.

Movies - Spider-man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Thoughts

Caught the 2 movies, coincidentally both third installments, over the past few weeks. Generally, both were much of a disappointment. They were good, but not what I was expecting.

There is a lot of hype about Spider-man 3, and great reviews and boxoffice sales. But personally, I just did not find it as good as the first and second installments. I was going in to see an action packed movie, but it turned out to be more of a romance drama. Also, I think maybe there were too many characters to focus on, and loose ends to tie up. Packing all these in 2 hours might be a tough job for the director Sam Raimi.

Some camera shots, like zooming into the crowd's facial reaction worked well previously, but somehow in this movie, it got pretty meaningless. The part where Peter turned "bad" was too long. It could have been shorten, and more time devoted to the villians.

The action sequences were so fast, that I could not keep up with what was going on. Also, the computer graphics, except for the Sandman transformation (which was the best part of the movie), were quite rough.

Overall, it is still a good movie to watch, but it does not deliver in terms of action.

I only managed to watch the first part of The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, when going into the third sequel. It seems that you need to have some background information of Deadman's Chest to understand what was going on in the beginning of World's End.

So I was lost throughout the movie on the exact plot and storyline(s) of the third installment. And the heavily accented dialogue did not help either. I had to read the Chinese subtitles to understand what they actors were talking about.

The special effects (not just the computer generated ones) and set designs, on the other hand, were impressive. The Flying Dutchman and the crew of Davy Jones and Jones himself were good eye candy. The rock crabs were cute.

Chow Yuen Fatt's role was not that strong and impressive as I would have been made to think though.

Johnny Depp's performance as Jack Sparrow steals the whole show once again. He is as hilarious as ever.

Overall, this is a good movie to watch, if you have watched the previous 2. Even if you have not, you can still go and watch it. Oh, and it is lasts more than 2hours by the way.

My recommendation if you had to choose between wither one, go for Pirates 3. It was more entertaining and value for your hard earned money.

Transformers Movie - Fast Food Toys

Just got this with the morning papers today. Looks like it is fast food for the next few weeks, again !

DC Comics for August 2007

Some cool cover art from DC Comics' August 2007 solicitations.

I never really like Tim Sale's art because he makes Batman and Hulk look like monkeys. But the way he drew the cape from BATMAN ANNUAL #26: HEAD OF THE DEMON looks kind of cool.

The next cover has 3 things that I like - Lobo, Batman and Sam Kieth. And it's great to see the main man back in action, and better still, against another of my favourite comic characters. This will be on the shopping list.

BATMAN/LOBO: DEADLY SERIOUS #1
Written by Sam Kieth
Art and cover by Kieth
Get ready for an action-packed 2-part tale teaming up the Dark Knight with the interstellar madman, as only Sam Kieth can deliver! Batman, transported to an alien vessel by a mysterious figure, is asked to help cure a plague that has infected its inhabitants. Lobo, who has also been shanghaied, finds himself in the same boat. Now, Batman and Lobo, two incredibly unlikely companions, must somehow find a way to work together — and find out the real reason for their abductions — before they kill each other!

Update 27 May 2007: Newsarama has put up a preview here. I just hope this artwork is only for these pages, and not throughout the entire 2 issues. It does not look like Sam Kieth had put a lot of effort into them.

The third cover by the master himself Alex Ross, from JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #8 just speaks for itself.

Next to the gorgeous Power Girl cover, is work from the hot new artist Jock, on GREEN ARROW: YEAR ONE #3-4. Jock first came into the limelight with his work on DC's Losers. Now his work can be seen widely, mainly covers and one shot deals. Jock's style is along the likes of Jae Lee, Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, etc. The simple, edgy black and white lines/tones, together with a fine tone of colour is simply amazing. Another shopping list item.

And lastly, SUPERMAN/BATMAN #39, by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs, has a similar style to Jock. I like the overall composition of the colours and the characters, and the straight lines, especially on Batman (reminds me of Mike Mignola). Though Superman's hand seems to be out of place, if he is supposedly choking Bats.

Oh, yes. One more thing to get in Jan 2008, that is part of Aug's orders.

Nuff said.

Book Haul of the Day - 20 May 2007

Made good use of the 20% discount offer (20 - 21 May 2007) at the local Japanese bookshop Kinokuniya and got meself the follow:

• Essential X-men Vol 2 (continuation of John Bryne's early artwork)
• Batman: Secrets TPB (artwork by Sam Kieth)
• Lore 2 TPB (artwork by Ashley Wood)
• Swallow 3 (artwork by multiple artists)
• Gear (artwork by Doug Tenpal)
• Sunrise Brave Series Toy Collection

Haul of the Day - 18 May 2007

Picked these babies up during lunch time. Woohoo !


Transformers the Movie figures deluxe class Wave 2, S$26.90 each.
Skipped on Bumblebee and Scorponok. Scorponok looks good in alternate mode, but the robot mode sucks. Bumblebee is not interesting enough to pick up at the moment.

Each carton consists of 2x Bumblebee, 2x Jazz, 1x Barricade, 1x Wreckage, 1x Brawl and 1x Scorponok. The carton indicates that these should not be on the shelf earlier than June 02, 2007 though.

Haul of the Week - 13 May 2007

Marvel SuperHero Squad - cute little super-deformed characters from the Marvel universe. The Fantastic Four is the latest series, while the Avengers is from an older series. S$10 each from local Toys R Us.


Thanks to my nephew for picking these up at the local department store. He's a great kid, and being a good uncle does payoff (I think I have to get him the Ben10 action figures). The Batman Shadowtek Man-bat (a repaint) and DC Superheroes Black SuperGirl.

Haul of the Week - 06 May 2007

Stuff I picked up this week, after a hiatus of 2 weeks while working in Shanghai.

Top left to right, bottom left to right:

• Kaiyodo Revoltech #24 Gaiking (TFH)
  
• Titanium Transformers War Within Megatron (TFH)
  
• Titanium Transformers G1 Ultra Magnus (TFH)
  
• Star Wars Heroes Hand and Luke Stormtrooper disguise (Takashimaya)
  
• Kaiyodo Revoltech #25 Megatron (TFH)
  
• DC Superheroes Mongul (Metro Sengkang, courtesy of shaun)
  
• Transformers the Movie Preview Starscream Protoform (Metro Sengkang, courtesy of shaun)
  
• Transformers the Movie Preview Optimus Prime Protoform (Metro Sengkang, courtesy of shaun)
  
• Hottoys 12" Terminator Endoskeleton (TFH)
  
• Konami Busuo Shinki EX Cannon Fort (courtesy of cosmicbaby)
  
• TakaraTomy Beast Wars Reborn TM-9 Rhinox (TFH)
  
• TakaraTomy Shoe Label 01 Optimus Prime and 02 Megatron (TFH)
  
• Mcfarlane Toys Spawn Series 30: The Adventures of Spawn: Omega Spawn, Spawn X, Codename:Cy-Gor (Takashimaya clearance sale, S$10 each, what a bargin)
  
• Loose Marvel Legends Phasing Ghost Rider, with a broken leg rest, S$10 (TFH)
  

Magazine haul:

Video - Naruto Shippuuden Opening 3rd Version

This is an small updated version of the Naruto Shippuuden opening, starting from episode 12 (or at least I noticed). The differences are very minor - background colour changes when the hand counts down, and the ending, where more people are assembled instead of just Team Kakashi.