Olympics, Lee Chong Wei and 1 Malaysia

Talking about real Malaysia, those sign or the slogan are all nothing but bloated propaganda and empty promises to most of Malaysians, yet tonight Lee Chong Wei has shown us the true spirit of 1 Malaysia.

Bringing his ankle injuries to the Olympic games without a full recovery, deep down in every Malaysian's heart have sort of given up on the hope of him bringing back the gold medal despite multiple adverts and commercials spreading all over the media and billboards. With a tough game fighting Finland's Ville Lang with 21-14, 8-21, 21-11 in the first round, it's hard to imagine Lee Chong Wei repeating the scene of him battling Lin Dan in the finals like the last Beijing Olympics. Yet, he made it against the odds by bringing down Indonesia's Simon Santoso, India's Kashyap Parupalli and even world's seed no.3 Chen Long to the finals.

Compared to the last game with Lin Dan in 2008's olympics with a complete defeat of 8-21 and 12-21 that clearly wasn't done with his full potential, Lee Chong Wei has impressed 28 millions Malaysians plus international media with an amazing game by taking down the first round with 21-15, 10-21 and 19-21. ESPN commentator praised Chong Wei "Skills win you medals, but attitude wins hearts". Don't forget, he played under a severe leg injury with a 19-21 result, though teeth-gritting but worth saluting. In fact, during an interview with CCTV, Lee Chong Wei revealed that for his every game in the Olympics, he has taken pain-killer to prevent his injuries from recurring. That time when he sat down on the court after having defeated, I thought he was crying in disappointment. No. He was actually resting because his leg was starting to ache. If Olympics has the best Olympian award, I think he deserves it.

Put aside his glory and reputation, I particularly love how sports, not just Olympics, brings the whole nation together. Being a multi-racial country, unity has always been a highly debated issue. For instance, recently with the whole "Malay asking Chinese to go back China" thingy had put more threat towards the aim of uniting people of different races. Yet when it comes to sports, it's like a voluntary action when people put down their weapons and armors, fighting for the same reason. It's the moment when people reveal the bright side of themselves! No one becomes hostile towards anyone. Instead of the hostility, friendliness is what we sense between every Malaysian even between strangers! Whenever Lee Chong Wei scores or loses, we don't just feel the joy of victory, but also the sense of pride for being a Malaysian. It works 1000000 times more effectively than standing in the field singing the national anthem everyday! In fact, it makes you want to stand up and sing for the national anthem your own. On the international view, I too, love how the Olympics acted as a reliever to the multiple world crisis, notably the economic crisis that hit Europe real hard.

Now I wish I could have done better in sports and make Malaysia proud but no, I'm not the one. Put that aside, I also wish the government would be aware of the issue of Malaysia talents getting dried out. Instead of focusing how to make them richer and powerful, I hope they could put more attention into this because honestly, like my mum said, unlike China who wins in almost everything they joined, Lee Chong Wei was pressured when the whole nation only put their hopes on him for the whole Olympics.

My The Amazing Spiderman Movie Review

It's been almost a year since I last stepped into the cinema-my favourite place in this whole universe besides home. So, every time when I hang out with my friends, I never forget to snatch the opportunity to watch movie. And what's the best part about movies during summer? Blockbusters. Yes, even the title clearly states the movie that I'll be sharing today. 

First of all, it's pretty unbelievable that I actually enjoyed this movie when it's cliché and mostly predictable, I guess all thanks to Mark Webb, the director of one of my favourite movies of all-500 days of Summer. Unlike other usual blockbusters or action movies, Mark Webb managed to capture the emotions and the psychological game surrounding Peter Parker and Gwen, Peter and his parents, Peter and Uncle Ben, Aunt May and not to mention the struggle within Dr. Curt Connors. Of course, the fact that when my friend informed me that Mark Webb directed 500DOS and now this legendary classic action blockbuster or whatever you call it is jaw dropping. Naturally I give 2 thumbs up for that without needing to watch the movie. On the other hand, I personally am a fan of action movies.

The initial part of the movie can be considered boring because I believe most people had already throw this movie into the "action summer blockbuster" tray before even watching it, so for people like me was only waiting for Peter Parker in his Spiderman suit fighting villains for 2 hours straight with a little kissing scenes to spice it up a little. Even my lil' brother can't stop looking at his watch, telling me that it's been one hour and the freaking Peter Parker haven't even discovered his Spiderman suit and still fooling around! However, luckily like all movies, the last part of the fighting, action scenes managed to compensate the loss at the front part and made it a movie that's worth my RM8.

Andrew Garfield, ahh~~~ Needless of any explanation I've been easily flattered by his shyness and cute looks with those heroic movements, not forgetting those heart-felt moments during his interactions with his first love-Gwen Stacy. I guess this is where Mark Webb, in my opinion, exercised his professions, judging on his experience of filming such a sweet, indie, romance film previously. Generally I would grade him an A for his acting in this movie. I think he had really portrayed the inner side of Peter Parker: The kid who always got bullied in school but hoped to bring justice someday, the kid who desire to know the truth to his parents’ mystery, the smart lad who was rebellious and thirst for revenge towards those who bullied him. He did a great job I think. But I have neither seen any instalments of Tobey Maguire’s version, nor read any Spiderman comics, so who knows if Tobey did a better job instead. Besides, I’ve never seen any movies of Andrew Garfield, including The Social Network. Hence it’s hard for me to judge if Spiderman was his best performance or not.

Gwen Stacy, yes! Peter Parker’s first love who was portrayed by Emma Stone, my favourite Hollywood actress of all time till date. Honestly, the only reason I love the fact that she is going to be Gwen Stacy against Garfield’s Peter Parker is because they are an off-screen real life couple! Who wouldn’t want to see couples acting on screen, especially something as big as Spiderman? In fact, this movie was the spark to their relationship! (d’awww~~~) Because Gwen Stacy, according to descriptions, gave me a sense of someone serious like Mary-Jane. How on earth would Emma Stone, the crazy girl on Easy A acting all serious? It’s almost bipolar.

My mindset didn’t change much after watching the movie, except that Gwen Stacy turned out to be someone who is still quite quirky (or maybe it’s just Emma Stone?)

You can feel the Oliver Penderghast or funny Emma Stone vibe in such saving-the-world-esque heroic movie. Nevertheless, the intimate scenes with Andrew Garfield were still rocking awesome!!! Even the lead lady herself admitted that the feeling of first love was the factor that attracted her to this project. Heh, thus no surprise there were chemistry going on between the two of them!

Rhys Ifans also did a great job in acting out Dr. Curt Connors with his metal struggles between being the good guy and the bad one. He compared his character to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which was very true! Those emotional parts aren’t easy to handle at all! On the other hand I think the movie didn’t really bring us along the journey of Dr. Curt Connors’ struggles. In other word, unlike Peter Parker, the movie managed to bring out Andrew Garfield’s acting and it felt like riding on a journey, from being an ignorant boy to the hero who takes up the responsibility to save the city. Dr. Connors’ character was unclear as to be the good guy or the villain since the beginning until when he turned into a mutant lizard then you realized he’s the bad guy. Then suddenly at the end he was the one who rescued the falling Spiderman from a tower, and I went “isn’t he the bad guy? Didn’t he want Spiderman to die?” So yeah, after the rescue you realize he’s the good guy again. Confusing much.

Speaking about confusion, there were also minor parts like when Spiderman attacked the thief who decoded some police car. You see the thief was decoding and when he got into the car, Spiderman was there. Then when the cops came, he disappeared and there goes the WHAT THE HELL moment. Moreover, I don’t get the part where the radioactive spiders are making webs. Other than the fact that we know it is where Peter Parker got bitten, others were a question mark for me.

Fortunately, the humour presented in it has balanced out the flaws of the movie, notably the epic cameo made by Stan Lee- the creator of Spiderman. That was the random time where you go “WALAOOOO” or “What…the…F…” but it was super hilarious and certainly unforgettable. Others were pretty minor but mediocre funny. It was something like, you gotta laugh or else the whole movie will be too serious. Not to mention when Peter just found his new super strength and how he broke literally everything to the extent that he had to use all his strength to open the door lightly before it breaks. That, was one cracking moment. Another super power of his was the stickiness of his hands until the keys on his keyboard got stuck on all his fingers. That was when he was still unable to control his newly gained super powers. I believe we all wished to see more funny parts from there but sadly no. Anyhow, it’s not a comedy after all.

Another good thing about this movie is the settings of the love line between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, which is one of the highlights of this movie. Other than the fact that because audience wish to witness the on screen intimacy of this hottest off screen couple, as I mentioned before, Mark Webb being the director of 500DOS explains em’ all. Unlike other movies like Transformers who hardly bring the emotional side of the Shia and Megan Fox’s relationship, the director put equal weightage on both action and love scenes in The Amazing Spiderman.

I have 2 biggest regrets in this movie. Firstly, I wished Emma Stone was Mary-Jane instead of Gwen because I want to see them together more even on screen! I don’t want to see when Spiderman lost Gwen and there’ll be no more Emma Stone or Andrew-Emma moments on screen :’( Secondly, I wished I watched it in 3D. Seriously especially when it came to the fighting part across the city, you can notice that it was made specially for 3D effects and it will be f***ing awesome!!!

As for me I watched in 2D, at some parts you felt like the thing was going to come and hit you or you’ll feel like playing roller coaster in the air when you see Spiderman flying doing his signature web-flying thingy. Instead of that, I got the “limited edition” and unfortunately unable to enjoy the thrill and exhilarating moments! I really wished I could get another chance to watch this movie in 3D again, like REALLY REALLY WISH TO DO SO!!!

All in all, as usual The Amazing Spiderman lived up to it’s commercial value and deserved to earn high box offices. I would recommend those who have not seen the movie to watch it in 3D. It’s definitely worth your money!

The aftermath of getting charmed by this couple :3