A "Fantastic" Weekend...?

Weekend of 16th & 17th June

Saturday


The movie frenzy of summer sequels continue as ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’ hits Malaysian cinemas this weekend. I was skeptical on whether to fork out RM10 bucks on this movie, since the first Fantastic Four film was so lame, watching any movies with Ice Cube into seemed cool. I mean, the first movies was so bad I cannot possibly believe it. The acting was lame, the special effects were cheap and the story was, well, what story? The only good bit was the ‘Human Torch’, but why do I want to pay good money to watch a good-looking guy having fun? Makes me feel bad… *sob* But anyway, my friends insisted, so what the heck, I joined in…

I went into the 1U cinema without any expectations and left my brain completely at home because in my opinion, to enjoy this movie, that is exactly what is required. I mean, the moment you use any brain cells, it is the time the movie will completely suck. It is that shallow. So, the cinema hall darkened, the pop-corn are a-munchin’ and the Fantastic Four burst onto the screen for next 1 hours 20 minutes or so, with me expecting the worst of any superhero lameness possible. But I was pleasantly surprised. I was surprised that this is a ‘Fantastic Four’ movie, directed by the same director with the same cast of actors, and I was watching a movie so much better from the last one. It was a vast improvement, but to be honest, the first movie was so bad any improvement would have been a great one.

First off, it was a great marketing move to include the Silver Surfer in it, because you are not essentially watching a Fantastic Four movie, you are watching a Silver Surfer movie supported by the Fantastic Four. So the movie makers successfully sidetracked the horrid ill-feelings from the first movie and re-booted the series with the help of the Silver Surfer and a bigger budget (hence the grander and longer fight sequences). And it worked. The director was spot-on with Silver Surfer and nailed him to the wall of coolness. There isn’t any molten-silver guy as cool as him since the T-1000 in ‘Terminator 2’. Seeing him fight with the Human Torch through skyscrapers and tunnels of New York really brought me back to the days when I was a kid, wide-eyed with wonder on cartoons of Transformers, GI Joe and the Silver Hawks (remember that one?).

Keep in mind that it is not ‘Batman Begins’ or the ‘X-Men’ as ‘Fantastic Four’ is not that serious, not so dark and frankly, not that smart. This series is meant to be fun, light-hearted and clean. Otherwise we wouldn’t get the ‘Fantastic’ in the name of ‘Fantastic Four’, would we? It would be ‘Fearsome Foursome’ or ‘The Darkness of the Four’ or whatever. You see, in essence this series is not meant to be dark and is not grown-up tales with grown-up troubles. Imagine what would ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ be if not for the silliness of Captain Jack Sparrow? What puts the ‘Fantastic’ in ‘Fantastic Four’ is its honest attempt to capture the childhood essence of fantasy, and it represents everything that is simple and full of imagination encapsulated in a time before adulthood. Just think of the names: Dr. Doom, The Thing, Invisible Woman, you name it, it is from the past of a childhood when Ultraman was enjoyable, Transformers was cool and Godzilla was God. This movie brought those times to my time in 2007.

Even though the story is paper-thin, there are many moments that are refreshing compared to the many other movies out there at the moment. The power-swapping scene is honestly a clever gag, not the mention the full-on London effects scene which was a nice amazement. Their new vehicle has a cool twist to it as it can split into many parts (compared to other vehicles which simply jumps at anything and shoots at everything), and of course the Silver Surfer himself is simply, well, cool.

Well, in the end, was it worth my RM10 bucks? Yes, just enough. Did I like it? Well, just enough. Will I see it again? Probably not. Can’t wait for Part 3? Definitely NO. But how about a whole movie just on the Silver Surfer? I’ll be waiting in-line at the cinema…

Sunday

Saturday was a nice surprise with the movie. On this Sunday however, it was not so fantastic. On my way to KL for a karaoke session with some friends at Neway, Times Square, I had a car accident. Yup, lucky me. Although it was not serious, this was supposed to be a fun day with friends screaming my lungs out at the karaoke machine. But it was not to be. The worst part is, the accident happened right outside my house. Yup. You see, while I was getting out of my car to close the house gate, out of nowhere this Indian guy on a motorbike slammed right at my car door. It wasn’t a side collision but the bike hit the edge of the door while being open, which luckily means not so much damage, but it caused my door to be out of alignment. Because of that, my door cannot close properly, which in turn, caused my car lock to not secure properly. But the damage still needed me to send it to the mechanic for knocking, which means I’m poorer by roughly a hundred bucks. Thank you Mr. Indian Guy.

All that caused a lot of anger inside of me. Why is that Indian motorbike guy suddenly there? I checked my side mirror before I opened by door, no guy there, but why is he THERE??? And worse of all, I got scolded by him and he ran off without paying anything or apologizing. SHIT ON YOU, BIATCH!!!! Why it has to happen to me? Why? And why is it always motorbikes? My last car accident was also a motorbike which slammed at my side and caused my windscreen to break (don’t ask me how). And a long time ago, another speeding motorbike cut my right side mirror away, just like that. Why? Is my car so valuable to motorbikes until you have cut a piece of my car away? Or you all just hate me? Is there a conspiracy of motorbikers out there that plans periodic & calculated attacks on my car to hurt me? Who are you people? What did I do to you all….? *SOB*, I’m innocent dammit!!! INNOCENT!!!

For the past few days I was suffering from ‘motorbika scaredika’ syndrome, a.k.a. scared of motorbikes. If I see a motorbike that is not behaving like a proper motorbike should be, I’ll slow down and switch lanes. I’ll let the bike have all the road glory to himself. And when I can’t switch lane, I’ll let rip my car horn like I’m announcing World War 3 is on the way. If I have the money, I’ll install 2 big speakers on my car roof to amp the noise too. Or rocket-launchers, whichever is in the market. I heard napalm is coming cheap nowadays….If I have more money, I’ll buy a big old 4x4 and squash all those tiny bikeys like disgusting insects, and install big bad punching fists at both sides of my car, and when a bad bikey comes nearby, I’ll simply push a button on my steering wheel and BAM!!! They will float like butterflies and good God, it sure will sting like bees. BBwwahAhahAHhahaah!!!

Throughout the karaoke session I was feeling very sad and very bad. So I sang very sad songs like Elvis Presley’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ (I will be when I got no more money to go out when I fixed the car). I also sang the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ (because it was only yesterday that my car is ok, but now….*sigh*). Then there was Tori Amos’ ‘Silent All These Years’. See, this song is about someone being raped, and at the moment I feel raped by that Indian guy because I got banged, got scolded and he left me for dead. Chilling…Other songs I sang (or screamed) included Celine Dion’s ‘(The Indian Guy Left Me) All By Myself’, Michael Learns To Rock’s ’25 Minutes’ (because if only I left my house 25 minutes earlier/later, none of this would have happened) and Crowded House’s ‘Don’t Dream Its Over’ (because, let’s face it, there will be more accidents in the future as long as you drive a car. So sad!!!! Please God, only super small teeny weeny accidents only God!!! After I sand all the songs already, I went into the toilet and cried (*sob*sob*).

After crying, I thought my problems were over, but it wasn’t. During singing, I dropped by handset on the floor and the casing split into two pieces. Sigh. And my new handset is dented a bit, which is so heartbreaking. SIGH….

Left the karaoke place feeling that my bad luck is over, we decided to have dinner in KL, but feeling lazy, went to ‘Station Kopitiam’ inside of Times Square for convenience sake. I ordered a dinner set, Thai sizzling chicken. Yummy!! But when the dish came, I saw a stinking rubber band in the middle of my rice. YUCKKK!!! My luck became from bad to worse. Luckily my friend saw it, otherwise I’ll become Mr. Fantastic and start to wobble all over. The waiter agreed to change the rice, but I have my doubts whether it was really changed or they just took out the rubber band….SIGGHHHHHH…..

I quickly decided to go back home and sleep the bad day away. But before that, I bought a Banofee cake from Starbucks just for my dad, because it was Father’s Day. You must be wondering why I’m not having dinner with him, that’s because I already spent him dinner. Anyway, Happy Father’s Day dad!!!!!