aleng's journal

Expelled from Paradise, a Japanese animated sci-fi movie released on Dec 2014.

"Expelled from Paradise" poster

I'm still unsure if many have watched it or not, but I do believe this is definitely one film I need to share out. But before I begin, of course, SPOILERS!

PLOT
Angela Balzac is an agent at the space station DEVA, whose inhabitants have no physical bodies, their minds digitized and processed into a virtual reality environment. After failing to track down the hacker known as "Frontier Setter", who had infiltrated DEVA's systems dozens of times to gather allies for his cause with no success, she is tasked to look for him down on Earth, now a barren planet where the rest of the humans live. After being given an organic body and sent to the surface, Angela meets Dingo, her contact on Earth, who cuts off all communications with her base, in order to prevent Frontier Setter from discovering their location as well, despite her protests.

Angela and Dingo's investigations lead them to an abandoned city, where they meet Frontier Setter, who is revealed to be an AI developed to supervise the construction of Genesis Ark, a ship designed for deep space travel, and somehow developed a conscience, continuing its work long after its masters perished. Realizing that Frontier Setter intends to do no harm at all, Angela leaves her body and reports to her superiors at DEVA, who order her to destroy it, fearing that it may eventually become a threat, but she refuses. Angela is then sentenced to have her mind stored into an archive forever, but Frontier Setter hacks into the system to rescue her. Once Angela returns to Earth and her body with supplies and weaponry, she and Dingo join forces to hold back DEVA's other agents long enough for a rocket carrying Frontier Setter and the final module to complete the Genesis Ark to be launched, and run away afterwards, while Frontier Setter starts its journey though space.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Critics..
This is one amazing movie I should've watched the first time my friend recommended me, but I still got a spare time to watch it anyways. First off, the story of the film is good in a sense it doesn't bore me, but what makes me wonder is how a hot appealing 16 year old girl walking in a sexy spacesuit (I think that's what they call it) doesn't get anyone's attention in the town. I mean, she is super annoying and wearing a sexy suit, how can no one notice that?! Anyways, musically, the film sure has a way with using simple "according to the scene" that makes you feel related. The animations are somewhat amazingly colorful yet disturbingly 3D, I'm not saying that the 3D animation is bad, is just that they might've brought the animation a bit too realistic, and sometimes, I feel like the calm scenes just doesn't stand out much. Character development is one of the best things I find so far in this film, and I'll admit that I love all 3 of the main characters in the film, and really... you gotta watch this film if you love animated films 'cause this one is colorful and technological at the same time. Overall, a good film that describes what being human is like, and literally one of my favourite Japanese films.

WILD, a biographical drama film which was released on December 2014. Although there isn't much to speak of in this film in terms of the plot, there are still some parts that I find it boring yet interesting at the same time. Well, before beginning, SPOILERS ALERT!!


PLOT
The film tells a story about a non-experienced hiker, Cheryl, who went through days (to be precise, 94 days) to hike miles of different terrains, like; deserts, forests, and fields. Upon hiking, some flashbacks of herself when she was a daughter, lover, drug abuser, teen, and a mother. The flashback consists of her loss of her mother, self-destructive behaviour, and sweet memories of her childhood times with her mother. She soon ended arriving at the destination she wanted to go, and understands her problems, and enlighten herself by realizing all she had to do was to live for the moment (this is probably where the term "WILD" comes), letting go off the past. And also, forgot to tell this in the beginning, the story is a non-linear narrative one, and the flashbacks can come any moment in the film.


CRITICS!
My first impression on the film was "The Hiking Version of 'Life of Pi'", and since I'm a lover of colorful animated films filled with musics, this was pretty boring in my terms of liking. However, the film seemed emotionally honest when it comes to feelings, making it surprisingly interesting. Plus, did I mention that this film contains sex scenes? I guess not. Well, the film speaks of drugs, sex, loss of loved one, and broken relationships, and as far as I've seen, this film teaches quite a lot of life lessons, like; "treasure your loved ones no matter who they are", "drugs and sex may seem fun, and although they might help in minimizing the pain from the past, they're just ruining your future", and "life is limited, live it to the fullest". Something tells me that this films is trying to give out a message saying "live life to its fullest in a right way", and that is something eye-opening for me. In terms of recommendation, I would say this film wouldn't suit children, even if the sex scenes were removed, they would still find this film boring, while people who truly are deep movie lovers will find this film a truly amazing film, and I'm not surprised that this film got a 90% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Watched the film? Share your thoughts on the comment below...

As a fan of Dreamworks, this is one movie I must watch! Although, I know it was released on November 2014, but hey... some might not have watched it yet, who knows.

Penguins of Madagascar poster

Anyhow, let's start of with the plot. Spoilers alert!!

PLOT
The film starts off with a background of how these penguins get to each other (actually, it's probably how Private made in the group), since the other 3 (Skipper, Kowalksi, and Rico) have been together since the beginning of the story.
In "The Glorious Future", without certain specific date, Skipper decided to celebrate Private's 10th birthday by infiltrating the U.S. Gold Depository. After making their way in, Private's gift was "the last, one and only" vending machine with Cheezy Dibbles, which was actually a trap in where the enemy kidnaps them all.
They were soon brought to Venice, the place in where the enemy hideout is, and here, the main enemy (Octavius "Dave" Brine) makes his introduction with some flashbacks, which I have to say is pretty sad.
After the introduction, the Penguins got ambushed, but managed to escape alongside with the enemy's main weapon, and upon cornered, another secret agent gang, North Wind, came to rescue them and brings them along to their secret hideout while introducing themselves to the Penguins.
Arriving at the hideout, the Penguins shared their infos with the North Wind, and soon realizes that Dave has even more "Medusa Serum", the main weapon mentioned before, and after the enemy hacked in their connections and revealing his mission, which has began even as they speak. The North Wind prepare themselves for the mission, but somehow, they underestimates the Penguins and tranquilizes them and decides to isolate them, which kind of failed. The North Wind then realizes that the Penguins didn't made it into the isolated region chosen.
The Penguins soon arrive at Dublin, Ireland, which is obviously Shang Hai. Soon, they hear about the news and somehow are able to identify Dave's next location of attack. Arriving at the location of enemy's next appearance, they manage to catch Dave, who escaped and caught Private. They start chasing Dave, hacked into North Wind's plane to get Dave, but failed miserably.
Meanwhile, Dave shows Private how his machine will help in his plan by making all adorable penguins into creepy monsters.
On the other hand, the 2 groups are spying and planning how to get in, where they agreed that the Penguins act as a diversion, while the North Wind sneaks in and captures Dave. However, both of the groups got ambushed and caught captive. Dave, soon, shows the Penguins what will happen when the Medusa serum is given full potentials by using Private as a lab test, which disintegrated Private, resulting in a very deep emotional scar for the Penguins.
However (plot twist), Private managed to escape and save the North Wind, who decides to go back to their headquarters to gear up, which disappointed Private.
Dr. Octavius then reports that he found all the penguins and decides to give them back, which of course, was part of his plan. In where, he turns them all into monsters which caused chaos. Somehow, due to Private's presence, the Penguins were able to get back into their normal selves, mentally. Private, who then shows that he stole the machine which activates the serum, tells that if they manage to reverse the serum's capability, they can turn everyone back to normal, but they would need something which is immeasurably cute (which is Private, let's admit it). However, by using Private's cuteness, Private himself gets mutated, and when they used the full potentials of Private's cuteness, he turns into a mutated yet mentally normal self. While Dave turned into a baby octopus, and everything went back to normal (except Private). As Classified (North Wind's captain) confesses that he regrets underestimating the Penguins, he wants to give them something as a "sorry" gift, which turns out to be jetpacks (and let's admit it, jetpacks ARE COOL). Midway through the credits, Skipper then said he will get a plan to get Private back to normal by Monday (which is Thursday noon) by using Mort's cuteness, and the film continues with the credits alongside with the theme music ("Celebrate").

CRITICS!!

Dangerously Cute indeed

First off, the animation of these films never fail to impress me with flashy images and colors. Second, the plot story of the film was great, although I specifically thought some parts were pretty illogical, but hey, this is a film, anything can happen. Thirdly, this film is suitable in all ages, kids will enjoy it definitely, and for adults, if you love punny jokes, then I'm sure you'll love this one. However, some jokes aren't really as juicy as they are, like Skipper mistaking Shanghai for Dublin, and to be honest, most of the jokes are pretty old. This film really gives a kid-friendly message, like "Looks don't matter, it's what you do that matters" and "If there's anyone who's gonna save us, it's us", throughout the story, alongside with the friendly "Po-like" fighting and planning tactics which never seems to bore me (No, seriously, I can't imagine how they think through all that tactics in splits of seconds), but still, they might wanna add up some imagination into the whole agents stuffs. Overall, this animated movie is one dull yet not so boring movie with spicy nostalgic humors and pun jokes. And let's not forget how cute the polar bear is... he's un"bear"able...