Because we were bored and the rain drove us mad the whole day, my brothers and I decided it would do us some good if we watched a movie at the mall last night.

There were only three choices for us to watch: Pirates of the Caribbean, Kung Fu Panda 2, and a Tagalog flick, In The Name of Love.

On any normal day, I would have picked the Tagalog flick, if only for the bitching reviews that my close friends have given me about this particular movie. I am very picky with my movie choices (or so I think), but this movie stood out because they all chorused that it was one of the better films that Star Cinema has churned out for this year thus far.

But since it was a family night out with the siblings, we settled for Kung Fu Panda 2. I had not seen its first  installment, so I was a little bit adamant about watching its second offering.

But boy was it fun!

The initial pictures (I won’t be writing any spoilers here, because I myself have felt the pain of being crushed by spoilers, just kidding ) were visual spectacles of fine art and 3d innovation. The humor, too, was enough to keep the audience interested in what the characters were about to say. And the story was also all right — it’s Hollywood after all, duh — and in the end, as with all other formulaic mainstream films, it talked about redemption, personal life goals, and the realization of self.

In a word, I would say ‘cute’ is the apt description to the entire movie experience.

Next movie goal: Watch Kung Fu Panda 1.

“In order to be great, you just have to do what’s right.”

-Ezylryb to Soren, on how to be great.

The ‘Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’ is a master storyteller’s epic narration of a young owl’s journey from his dreams of becoming a hero to actually becoming one. The first of a 3-book series by Kathryn Lasky, it is a poignant story of heroism and valor — and how one can achieve greatness by simply treading the path to righteousness. Righteousness, after all, is what beatifies normal beings and propels them into the heights of greatness.

As a young owl, Soren was always fascinated by stories of epic battles and legendary owl warriors who were part of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a group of warrior owls who were widely-revered by the Owl Kingdom for their unmatched bravery and honour. But through time, because no owl has been to Ga’Hoole to prove the Guardians’ existence, they have faded into being myths, and anecdotal accounts were what remained of their existence.

One night however, Soren and Kludd, his older brother, were taken hostage by marauders from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Their captors were part of a group of owls who were commandeered by Metal Beak, a Sooty Owl who was bent on subjugating the entire Owl Kingdom by using flecks, a radioactive element that targeted the gizzards of owls. Together with his equally draconian and messianic wife, Nyra, they sent owl soldiers far and wide to scour for owlets that can work for them, either as soldiers or pellet pickers.

Those who opposed this imposition were tricked into looking at the sun and being moon-blinked, which made them forget their past when they awoke — making them unquestioning laborers for Metal Beak’s dark empire. The story takes an unusual twist when Soren flies away from the dark kingdom, aided by a Barn Owl, and together with a handful of friends, he makes his way into Ga’Hoole — but his brother chooses to stay with Metal Beak and serve his army in ridding the Owl Kingdom of unpure ones.

From this departure of life destiny, Soren and Kludd become warriors for different empires: Kludd for a dark owl who was intoxicated by the grandeur of power, and Soren, who was imbued with the noble zeal of protecting the Owl Kingdom from purist encroachments.

In the inevitable battle between the proverbial good and evil, one owl is immortalized in the pedestals of greatness, whereas the other meets his demise in both an actual and metaphorical inferno of ferocious firestorm.

The appeal of ‘Legends of the Guardian’, for me, lies in its subtle take on the universal dichotomy of the selflessness of good and the incomprehensible madness of evil. Of course, it does not hurt that the visuals were stunning and the storyline was sporadically peppered with random statements that glorified righteousness and shunned evil in all its forms.

The Owls of Ga’Hoole, very subtly, traces the very origin of greatness — and in this winding journey of self-discovery that commences with self-actualization, greatness manifests in the simplest of acts. For in this intricate conflation of dreams, betrayal, and heroism, Soren realizes that by placing his heart in its rightful place, he can become the owl warrior that he has always wanted to become.

If only for highlighting the sparkle of goodness amid the gloom and darkness of evil, ‘The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’ is a beautiful movie that captures goodness in its most pristine form. It is a coming-of-age story that simplifies the intricacies of our dreams, as it teaches us how our hearts can lead us to the path of righteousness, and ultimately, greatness.

In the Eyes of a Child

by Alvin Clyde O. Gregorio

‘Innocent Voices’ is a poignant story of innocence, carnage, and idealism in war-torn El Salvador during the 1990’s, just as the country was gripped by a military dictatorship, backed by the United States of America.

It chronicles the travails of an eleven-year old child, Chava, as he desperately lives up to the expectations of his mother and younger siblings of being, quite ironically, the man of the house – this, after the original man of the house, her husband and their father, had abandoned them, in hopes of seeking greener pastures abroad.

With its unapologetic treatment of the storyline, and with hints of humor to couch the thick mist of dread underlying the film’s tone in its entirety, the movie is both unsettling and engaging, serious yet candid, sordid but captivating, and revolting however redemptive.

The movie’s central irony, and one which mystifies and lures the viewer into watching the film even if it’s theme verges on incomprehensible carnage and butchery, is the juxtaposition of unadulterated innocence with the recklessness of man’s anger and spite – and it is this juxtaposition which tugs at the heartstrings, the wretchedness of war made more atrocious by the glaring disparity of a child’s worldview vis-à-vis the general foment of hatred that had so consumed his countrymen –

For all that he needed was a solace, a place where he can strike a balance between claiming his childhood and asserting his raw and newfound authority as the man of the house; an affirmation that his existence meant something, anything.

As I was watching the movie progress, I was perplexed and revolted by the conflation of circumstances that stripped Chava of his innocence, seething with rage over the adeptly-orchestrated deception of Western-constructed freedom, the superficiality of the American notion of liberty, the temporariness of bliss, the incomprehensibility of war, the unjustifiable encroachment of poison in the minds of men, the vulnerability of the young, and the helplessness of the innocent amid the incivility of a world that is so deeply-entrenched in hate, remorse.

For in the aftermath of any war, its justifiability or superfluousness notwithstanding, and when the rubble of violence and despair has settled, how are you to address the questions of a child? How do you get him to understand that war is both inevitable and humane?

No war is ever justified – not to the architects of war, nor to the innocent lives that are, in an instant, thrust into the crossfire.

For in the mind of a child, the rhetoric of eventual freedom and military victory is a hazy concept, an alteration to the natural order of things, a rupture to the societal and social fabric – for in the heart of a child, he can only see the devil masked in a military uniform, consumed with the dark and sole intent of perpetuating evil –

And sometimes, it is essential that we find wisdom in viewing the world from the lens of innocence – to counter the ubiquitousness of evil, and temper the unbridled proliferation of mayhem and madness.

it’s amazing how the accumulation of years can alter the way one thinks.

this afternoon, just when I was slowly submitting that it would be one of those lazy summer afternoons spent senselessly channel surfing and thinking about nothing really, i chanced upon a movie that i have probably seen twice or thrice before.

this time however, the movie had taken on a totally different meaning.

the movie was gattaca, which is a futuristic movie wherein people’s identities were no longer determined by their capabilities, but by a series of processes which predetermined their existence later on in life. the sophisticated technology enabled medical practitioners to predict if a child was someone potentially great, or conversely, a mediocre citizen in the future — so they stratified society according to these established standards — such that even before people established their own niche in society, they already had a future mapped out for them.

the movie takes on an interesting turn however, when vincent, who was diagnosed to be sickly (or a degenerate, as how society tagged him) and thus incapable of greatness, decided to fight the odds and disprove society’s consensual construction on the notions of greatness and obscurity.

he braved the tide, and went against society, albeit covertly, and in the end, he triumphed against the skewed societal conventions that were deeply entrenched and firmly established. he showed, by being daring and discarding the unreasonably rigid prerequisites for greatness that were in place, that the human spirit can transcend the most sophisticated of standards and do away with the predetermined notions of existence — because after all, the human spirit is much more complex than a series of DNAs (which really prevents one from self-actualization).

as i have said earlier, i’ve probably seen the movie twice or thrice before — but on very different times and circumstances in my life, such that i never fully appreciated the movie not just for its cinematic, but philosophical worth as well. if i remember it correctly, i was asleep the whole time when i first attempted to watch the movie. note that i used the word ‘attempt’

it was on second year high school, and i was expecting a visual spectacle of laser guns, light sabers, and silver-suited extra-terrestrial beings battling it out with the earth’s finest — so when i was dismayed by the seriousness of the movie’s tone right at the start, i thought it better to just doze off and look for the visual spectacle elsewhere.

but this time, it got me thinking –

gattaca challenges the way people think — because instead of submitting to societal standards which inevitably do away with a person’s potential, the movie compels us to rethink how society comes up with its standards — but it does not end there, for it encourages people to rise from the depths of apathy and rally against the tyrants which determine the fate and course of our existence. tyrants, after all, do everything to convince their unsuspecting subjects that their perversion of society is the way to go — in the hopes of normalizing oppression and perpetuating their continued dominance.

but then again, the human spirit is capable of so much more — and it cannot be held captive by these deceptive ploys — because even if the tyrant is initially successful in transforming society according to his whims, he can never completely do away with the human spirit — because all of us, no matter how insignificant we may appear to society, are endowed with wisdom and heart — and it is this intrinsic human attribute which, among all other things, determines how our lives will turn out in the long run.

mako texted me on the night that i was not able to catch my flight (tough luck, had to shell out an extra 1500 for the new fare, and endure the endless ranting of my parents for being so dangag – plus for shielding my ‘kadangagan’ with the chaos theory).

anyway, we were in robinsons galleria. last full show. and the movie poster, plus all the hype behind the movie proved to be very promising.

enter the film credits.

argh.

boring. uneven acting (major boohoo). poor editing. senseless scenes which were flashed in a disorderly manner. a complete ruckus.

well now that my impression is out, let me explain why these are my observations (since its my first time to epal and assume the role of an unapologetic critic).

i especially found natalie portman’s portrayal of anne boleyn unbelievable, hasty, and very lethargic. because although the movie wanted to highlight her eventual change of personality, and her gradual transformation into a woman of immense manipulative capacity, it did not deliver.

it just did not. any average reasonable moviegoer will surely notice the unevenness of her role portrayal. she is better off as queen amidala, than the highly controversial anne boleyn.

hmm. scarlett johansen? reminded me of mylene dizon.

(hey, this movie critic bitchin’ is real fun. hehe)

eric bana is okay. typical eric bana acting.

anyway, i dont want to dwell on the technicalities here, so ill just nitpick on a few things because fyi, im a lazy critic. hehe.

anyhow, the movie is supposed to be an adaptation of one of history’s most controversial, most influential period (the creation of the church of england, and retracing the roots of one of england’s most revered monarchs – elizabeth), however, it reeks of mediocrity.

well, to say that it is mediocre may be harsh to some extent; but given the stellar cast, and the rich display of production visuals/quality that have heralded its supposed ‘greatness’, the movie was all in all, a big disappointment.

im thinking 10 pm saturday night cinemax features 2 years from now.

but then again, im just a lazy movie critic with nothing better to do. go check the movie out.

but again, dont let your hopes up. and dont tell me i didnt warn you.