Review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Finally saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer today. I never saw it in the cinema when it first came out because the first movie was terrible. I'm happy to say; Rise of the Silver Surfer was much, much better.

A warning though, the movie starts slow. Set two years after the first film, Reed Richards and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba looking blonder than ever) are preparing for their wedding when a silver object enters Earth's atmosphere. The object is radiating cosmic energy and starts digging deep craters at different locations across the Earth. Reed build a sensor to track the movements of the object, something the object isn't happy about. The object destroys the sensor during the wedding and The Human Torch pursues the object, only to have his ass handled to him by the Silver Surfer. The fight however set The Torch's power in flux, allowing him to switch powers with his teammates through physical contact.

The Surfer's movements around the globe bring him to the attention of Dr.Doom. Doom traced the Surfer to the Arctic and makes him an offer to join forces. The Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks, and Doom got his ass handled to him by The Surfer as well.

In the end, the Fantastic Four has to work with Doom to save the planet. Deducing that the Surfer's board is the source of his power, the group develops a pulse generator that will separate him from it. The Surfer revealed he is only a servant to Galactus, the destroyer of worlds. The pulse works and separate the Surfer from his board. The U.S military imprisons the Surfer in Siberia and began torturing him for information. The Surfer tell Sue that his master is Galactus, a massive cloud-like cosmic entity which must feed on life-bearing planets to survive, and that his board is a homing beacon which summons him to the planet. The Fantastic Four tries to break the board free.

Unfortunately, Doom has already stole it using a device to gain control of the board and its powers. The Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer, and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar (which look kind of cool actually). The fight ends in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is mortally wounded. The Torch absorbs the combined powers of the entire team in order to battle the cosmic energy-empowered Doom. He managed to break Doom's control over the Surfer's board, and the Thing uses a nearby crane to knock Doom into the harbor where he is last seen sinking.

Too late though, because Galactus has already arrived. The Surfer regains the control of his board, and his power is restored. He revives Sue and chooses to defend Earth by flying into Galactus and confronting him. The conflict results in a massive blast of energy, seemingly killing Galactus in the process (I know, Galactus dying? Ha!).

The movie is kind of short but it works because it is all action. Any longer and it may look draggy. The special effects were good and overall, it was much more fun than the original. It's not great; it is simplistic, and at times pretty idiotic but hey, the title IS Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

It's a huge improvement over the first movie, so take it as it is. The movie ends with a shot of the Silver Surfer's seemingly lifeless body floating through space. Just as he drifts off the edge of the screen his eyes open and his board races towards him. Silver Surfer movie coming up!

Singaporean to the Bone

A 7.9 earthquake hit Indonesia yesterday and boy did I felt it. Like many residents in Singapore, I felt the quake as it swayed my office in the central business district. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't any evacuation order in my building (though that didn't stop some people from running out of the building).

The earthquake struck at 7.10pm in Sumatran about 670 kilometres from Singapore. A second smaller quake measuring 6.1 hit the same area two hours later, causing a second round of tremors in Singapore. Luckily, I was out of the office by then.

As the building swayed, I can't help but think, "Does insurance pay out if I die in a collapsed building?" That proves how Singaporean I am, doesn't it?

Singapore Sex Day

You know how the Singapore government has been trying to get women to have more babies...without any success whatsoever. Now this is an IDEA!

The governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia is offering prizes to couples who have babies in exactly nine months - on Russia's national day on 12 June, and Mr. Sergei Morozov wants couples to take the day off work to have sex! If a baby is born on national day, they will receive cars, TVs or other prizes.

This is the third year that Ulyanovsk is offering prizes for babies born on 12 June and this year, a couple won the grand prize of a sports utility vehicle (SUV). What's more; the idea is working! The region's birth rate has risen by 4.5% over last year.

A national holiday for couples to have sex! And it has been proven to work! Singapore Sex Day coming up!

Military Double-speak

Sometimes I just don't get military people. General Petraeus, the top US military commander in Iraq, has reported to the US Congress that there have been progress due to the US military surge earlier in the year.

Gen Petraeus told the Congress that sectarian violence declined since the surge started, but the situation remains difficult and the decision to withdraw from Iraq should be postponed till March 08. So the idea is that the US can't withdraw if they are losing as this will mean they are giving in to the 'terrorists', but can't withdraw when they are winning because they are winning! Brilliant!

In short, the US are going to have 168,000 troops in Iraq for...forever? Let the bleeding continue.

Rugby World Cup: The total mismatch

With ESPN trying to stuff the Rugby World Cup down Asia's throats, this may come as a bit of a surprise but there is another World Cup going on.

The Women's World Cup competition is under way in China right now. Yes, most Singaporeans will go, "Oh, it's women football." This will be followed by giggles, laughter etc. But will it be worse than seeing the All Blacks winning by 60+ points? I don't think so.

The Rugby World Cup has been a total bore for me. New Zealand win by 60+, the Aussies win by 50+, it's a total mismatch! Even when England win by 28 points against the U.S.A, they were considered poor!

I'm not a fan of rugby but why are these teams even in the World Cup? Give me women football; maybe the matches will be closer!

Comics this week

Countdown 34- As the cover showed for this issue, the Batman made a small little cameo. So did the Flash, but the writers has went back to the jumping plotlines again. Surprisingly, it worked for me this week. None of the storylines had anything major going on but it worked this week because the stories seems to be finally getting somewhere. Jimmy Olsen got a idea of what's happening to him; the Rogues are trying (without success) to tell their side of the story; Mary Marvel met up with Witchboy (in a welcome guest appearance) and even Holly Robinson is finally going somewhere. I still don't care about Donna, Jason and Bob (how can I when I have no idea why Ray Palmer is that important). I'll say Countdown is improving but it has a long way to go to match 52.

New Warriors #4- The New Warriors was marketed as the anti-Avengers: Initiative team, so it was a bit of a surprise that the first meeting of the 2 teams was the Warriors saving the Avengers' ass. Still, outside the welcome bit of action in this issue, New Warriors still suffer from the lack of focus on it's team members. Outside Night Thrasher, Jubilee and maybe Sofia, I still don't really know who the others are. And one of the Warriors looked badly injured at the end of this issue. Hopefully, writer Kevin Grevioux isn't going to go New X-Men on us and start killing off characters before we get to know them.

Games Convention Asia (GCA)

Just came back from the Games Convention Asia (GCA) that is being held in Suntec and I was impressed by some of the displays there.

The big surprise for me was that AsiaSoft had the biggest booth at the convention. Yes, they were even bigger than EA. There wasn't much on Maplestory though, most of their floorplace were for demos of their new online games; Cabel, Darkness & Light (both seems to be action fantasy games) and Ragnarok Online II (a cute game that's less sweet-aching than Maplestory).

News for 9Dragons players. A Singapore company called Cherry Exchange will be in charge for the item mall here. Similar to the AsiaSoft's MaplePoints, their CherryPoints can be used to exchange for items in the game. Cherry Exchange is also in charge for the item mall in Trickster Online. In case anyone don't know, Trickster is a pretty new online game. Think of it as a 3D version of Maplestory, and you can get the idea. From what I saw, people who like to play cutsy characters can try it.

EA had a big booth at the convention, most of which were for their console games. I saw various Sims2 expansions and played a demo for the upcoming Warhammer Online. Disappointed with it. Warhammer Online wasn't bad, but there was nothing I haven't seen from World of Warcraft or LOTR. Also disappointed that I didn't see any demo for the Lone Wolf game. I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't there. However there were trailers for Starcraft and World of Warcraft: Warth of the Lich King.

For a first time convention, GCA was exactly pretty good. Tomorrow is the last day though, go take a look. Don't worry, it's free.