Marisa Tomei as Aunt May

Let me say this upfront; I don’t understand why there’s a need for another reboot of Spiderman. Actor Tom Holland has been cast as Peter Parker in Marvel’s latest version of Spiderman and I thought the move (and the reboot) wasn’t necessary.

However, Marvel then got fans in an uproar because they cast Marisa Tomei as Peter Parker’s mild manner Aunt May. In case you did not know, this is Marisa Tomei!

You have to admit, Ms. Tomei is one sexy 50 year-old but…Aunt May? Now I think Marisa Tomei is a very good actress (My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler) but if she managed to pull off Aunt May, she deserved another Oscar to put alongside the one she won for My Cousin Vinny. I just can’t see her as Aunt May. To me, this is a serious case of an actress miscast for a role that’s not right for her. Sexy, slutty Marisa Tomei as a character that's usually a mild mannered, understanding, quiet woman? I can't see it.

However I would like to be proven wrong. Like I said earlier, Marisa Tomei is very good so hopefully she will surprise all of us. After all, she has to be better than Emilia Clarke as Sarah Conner right?

Comics this week

Earth 2: Society #2- Ambition is not usually a bad thing. For me, I like it when writers and artists pushed the envelope. However, there’s such a thing as being too ambitious for your own good and after two issues, this may be the problem for Earth 2: Society. Writer Daniel H. Wilson followed the template of #1 by showing Earth 2 both during the crash and the effects of it one year later. No doubt there’s a lot that happened during the year but without the context of what happened, a lot of what’s happening seems out of left field. Why don't Batman trust Huntress and the Flash for example. We have no idea and hopefully answers will come soon

  

Injection #3- Now this should have been #2 instead of #3! Unlike the very disjointed #2, I can actually understand this issue and the overall story. Writer Warren Ellis and artist Declan Shalvey has in this issue put together something that’s weird, strange and wonderful. This issue gave me back the promise I felt in #1 and hopefully the next issue will keep the ball rolling. The only thing I wish for is that we have more time with the think-tank Maria Kilbride and Robin Morel were in. They look like a group that’s just bursting with stories.

Master of Kung-Fu #3- After the fun romp in the first 2 issues, this Secret Wars tie-in get into the serious business of deciding the next Emperor of Kun Lun. The Thirteen Chambers are opened and all the Grand Masters of the land, including the drunken master Shang-Chi, entered for their chance to rule the land. I knew this would happen sooner or later but I can’t help but feel writer Haden Blackman has to rush things due to the limited series format of Master of Kung-Fu. I mean the start was a flashback from Rand-Kai that might had been an issue all on its own. Hopefully, the final issue will set things right again. 

Pampered Singaporeans

Tonight, the SMRT lines broke down yet again. Train services were not available at all stations along the North-South and East-West lines due to power fault and although free bus boarding services were provided by SMRT, complaints by Singaporeans flooded the internet.

Now, I’m not exactly against the complaints since the trains did stop, but some of the complaints were just too over-the-top. I read one which says Singapore doesn’t need terrorism, just the MRT breakdowns will kill off the country. I read this (and others) and could only think of one thing; we Singaporeans are a bunch of pampered fools.

Train breakdowns are an inconvenience, and people die during terrorist’s attacks. To compare the two, even jokingly (and I don’t think the guy was joking) is in bad taste. If the trains don’t work, Singaporeans can take taxis and buses. If you die in a terror attack, you are never going home.

America, Great Britain, Tunisia, France, Spain, almost every country in the Middle East, and many others had suffered through the pain of terrorism. To say that train breakdowns put Singapore in the same category as these countries is insulting beyond belief.

Complain all you want about SMRT and the train breakdowns, but Singaporeans should still take care. The breakdowns are hardly the end-all of the country. To some families, terrorism is.  

Greece Vote "No"

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras scored a decisive victory yesterday when the Greek public overwhelmingly voted "no" in a referendum to demands by international creditors for more austerity measures. The 61% to 39% result was much higher than anyone expected as polls had indicated just a few percentage points difference going into the referendum.

With the vote, Greece is now in uncharted territory as austerity measures has been demanded by their creditors in exchange for a bailout of its bankrupt economy. Without the measures, there's no bailout. PM Tsipras' demand for a better deal from the creditors has been rejected before and that was why he went to the Greek public. The man's refusal to sign a bad deal for his country had led to this and you know what; I totally understand why he did it.

The simple fact is that after 5 years of austerity measures, the Greek economy is now worse than ever. PM Tsipras did not create this mess, he inherited it, and his first priority is to the country of Greece and the Greek people. He refuse to sign the deal given to him because it calls for measures that has proven to be unsuccessful and he do not wish to continue with a failed strategy. 

Mind you, no one can say Greece hadn't tried the medicine given to them. They tried for 5 years and the condition of their economy had gotten worse and worse. Does it comes as any surprise to anyone that they now want to try something else? 

So this may be uncharted territory but I can totally understand why the Greek public voted as they did. If I was Greek, I would have probably voted the same way, 

The Never-ending Saga of 1MDB

Debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) have been a millstone around the neck of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for months, and it is about to get worse.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the Sarawak Report, investigations into 1MDB have allegedly uncovered that US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) has been channeled into the personal accounts of PM Najib. Both WSJ and the Sarawak Report are quoting from documents from the 1MDB probe that is being carried out by the Malaysian government, and the Sarawak Report even claimed that the Attorney-General was aware of the information.

Wow! This is huge. US$700 million is no small figure and what's more is that the report came from the WSJ. WSJ is no sleazy tabloid or some opposition mouthpiece; it is a very respected paper with over a century of history so it's hard to see them going to print with this story without some hard evidence to back it up. Also with this report, 1MDB has just become an international case. 

If the WSJ is going with the story, then it means 1MDB has gotten attention not just in Malaysia and the region, but also throughout the world. PM Najib could ignore the international attention but that still means he has a lot of questions to answer, especially the allegations from WSJ that a transaction of US$61 million was transferred to his account in March 2013, two months before the last Malaysian general election. 

Naturally, Putrajaya has denied the reports, insisting that the PM has not taken any funds for personal use but this case has just gotten bigger and bigger every month. The Malaysians need to nip this case in the bud quickly and if this means getting rid of Najib...well, from the 1MDB saga, that might not be a bad thing for Malaysia. 

A Monopoly Movie?

Now everyone knows Hollywood has ran out of ideas years ago and are now just rehashing ideas from other medium. TV series (Mission Impossible), cartoons (Ninja Turtles), comics (you name it), books (ditto); all have adaptations to the silver screen. Now you can add one more to that list; Board games!

Yes, you read that right. Hasbro has announced that they will create a movie based on Monopoly, the classic board game. Created over than a century, I think it’s fair to say everyone has either played or heard of Monopoly before, but a movie based on the game? It sounds stupid.

Now I won’t say it’s impossible to do it, or even that it won’t be good (I'm thinking Wall Street with cash thrown around and Jail time for the characters), but there’s just something wrong with the idea of making a movie based on the board game. It just sounds wrong to me.  

Comics this week

Secret Wars #4- We always knew it was coming but when it did, it still came as a surprise. The team of Doom and Strange was always going to break with time but when it did, it was...kind of sad. These two managed to save the universe but old relations from the old universe caused the tag-team to break and it was something neither one of them wanted. It was just something that's destined to happen. Artist Esad Ribic managed to show the reluctance of Doom as he killed his one real connection to the old universe and it perfectly complement writer Jonathan Hickman's story.

We Stand On Guard #1- Saga writer Brian K. Vaughan has been on a roll lately and We Stand On Guard changes nothing on that score. Teaming up with artist Steve Skroce for an action-packed military thriller that is set 100 years in the future, We Stand On Guard #1 has one of the most intense opening scenes I can remember. A family sitting down watching television got blasted by a missile but before dying, the father made his young son promise to take care of his younger sister. This was a great start and it continued on throughout the issue. Canada has been invaded by their southern neighbour and a heroic band of Canadian civilians must defend their homeland from the United States of America. With detailed combat, giant robots, and a gritty, gripping story, this issue is superb. Looking forward to #2!