Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Inception is an action sci-fi thriller about a CEO-type becomes involved in a blackmailing scandal. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Inception opens on July 16, 2010.

Popularity: 1%

Avatar is James Cameron’s action adventure sci-fi thriller about a band of humans who are pitted in a battle against a distant planet’s indigenous population. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez, Avatar opens on December 18, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

District 9 is a sci-fi thriller by Peter Jackson directed by Neill Blomkamp.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sharlto Copley in "District 9"

District 9 opens with a short documentary-style interview footages which cover the alien spaceship which hovers above Johannesburg, South Africa. After months without contact, humans take initiative by cutting into the ship only to find prawn-like aliens mostly malnourished or sick. These aliens are then housed in a government camp called District 9.

The movie then starts after 20 years of the alien’s arrival. District 9 has slowly turned into a slum and the situation is out of control as humans want the aliens out, therefore, an organization called Multi-National United (MNU) takes over with the interest in aliens’ advanced weaponry rather than the aliens’ welfare.

An MNU field employee, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is promoted to undertake the task to move 1.8 million aliens to a new District 10 camp located more than 200 km from Johannesburg. Wikus is exposed to a mysterious alien device which squirts a dark liquid on his face. Soon after, Wikus’ left arm mutates into alien-like claw and is taken into custody by the MNU with series of experiments performed on him. When the MNU decides to harvest his body for biological material, Wikus fights back and escapes from MNU.

During his bid to hide from the MNU, he ends up in a shack belonging to an alien called Christopher Johnson whom Wikus has taken the alien device from. Christopher explains to Wikus he needs the device to fuel his shuttle to return to the mother ship. Christopher also tells Wikus that with the mother ship, he can fix Wikus’ mutated arm. Wikus then pays a visit to a Nigerian criminal gang to buy the weaponry he needs but when the Nigerian discovers Wikus “prawn” arm, they intend to chop if off for their nutritious benefit. Wikus manages to grab a highly advanced alien weapon and blast it at the gang disintegrated a few Nigerians in the process.

Wikus and Christopher then storm into MNU in order to retrieve the fuel device. With their advanced weaponry, they manage to retrieve the fuel device but while there, Christopher has discovered that MNU have been experimenting on his people. When they return to Christopher’s shack, Christopher tells Wikus he needs at least three years to fix Wikus’ arm. Furious, Wikus knocks Christopher down in order to power the ship by himself. His attempt fails when MNU manages to destroy one of the shuttles engines and the shuttle crash lands inside District 9. Thereafter, MNU mercenaries and the Nigerian thugs begin to fight over the possession of Wikus van der Merwe. Although, the Nigerian manages to capture Wikus, Christopher’s son Little CJ gains control of a mechanized battle suit located in the Nigerian camp and wipes out the entire gang in order to rescue Wikus.

Wikus returns Christopher a favor by donning the battle suit and assisting him to escape to the shuttle. Christopher promises Wikus that he will return in three years time while Wikus continues to destroy all that stand in his way. When Wikus finally falls and is ejected from the suit, the leader of the MNU mercenaries point a gun on Wikus at point blank range. Then, by some means, aliens begin to surround the mercenary before they disassemble him.

Christopher and his son manage to reach the mother ship and evacuate Earth while it is shown Wikus has finally transformed into a alien as he waits for Christopher’s return.

Overall, District 9 is one of the most thrilling films in 2009 even though it combines documentary-style of Cloverfield, the slums of Slumdog Millionaire rather than being just an ordinary alien movie.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 1%

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a live-action film based on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy franchise by Hasbro.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Saïd Taghmaoui, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are military and are involved in transporting extremely dangerous warheads. Their caravan is ambushed by a group of mercenaries led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who possesses highly advanced weapons far more superior than the NATO transport unit. Duke and Ripcord’s fellow soldiers are all killed by the mercenaries. The Baroness spares the life of Duke, as Duke knows her as Amy Lewis. All of a sudden, G.I. Joe appear out of nowhere and attack the mercenary, forcing them to escape leaving behind the warheads.

Sienna Miller in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

Later on, Duke and Ripcord are recruited by General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) to join the ranks of the Alpha Team, the G.I. Joes and they are brought to The Pit, the home of the Joes where Duke and Ripcord have to go through military training where most parts involve virtual reality. When they pass their tests with flying colors, they are immediately engaged in battles with the mercenaries when the mercenaries invades The Pit to steal the warheads. It is known that the mercenaries known as Cobra is led by James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), the person responsible in using NATO’s funds to make the warheads and then steal them back.

Duke, Ripcord, Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake-Eyes (Ray Park), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui) are sent to Paris to stop Cobra from activating the warheads. However, they are too late as Baroness and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) manage to activate the warhead, killing Baron de Cobray in the process.

After all the high speed car chase with Duke and Ripcord in highly advanced suits which make them incredibly fast and nearly invincible, Scarlett in a superbike and Snake-Eyes on top of the jeep that Baroness and Storm Shadow are in, Storm Shadow manages to destroy The Eiffel Tower even though Duke manages to stop the nano bugs which come from the warhead to continue to destroy the entire city.

Throughout the movie, there are numerous flashbacks to further depict the story behind everything includes how Duke’s ex-fiancée, Amy Lewis is recruited into Cobra and how the entire military thinks Rex Lewis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Amy’s brother is killed but actually survived and becomes “The Doctor”, Cobra’s highly intelligent scientist.

The movie is like the combination of “Watchmen” and “Terminator Salvation” in which the world is going to end but in G.I. Joe, “When All Else Fails, They Don’t”. That’s the motto of the movie. And as a matter of fact, it doesn’t fail. It is surely highly entertaining, full of actions and has the right elements and is occassionally comical.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

Popularity: 1%

Tron Legacy is a action sci-fi movie about a virtual-world worker who looks to take down the Master Control Program. Starring Jeff Bridges, Tron Legacy release date is tentatively set to 2010.

Popularity: 1%

District 9 is a sci-fi movie produced by Peter Jackson about an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology. Starring William Allen Young, Robert Hobbs, Jason Cope, Sharlto Copley, David James, District 9 opens on August 14, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Surrogates is a sci-fi action film starring Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell. Surrogates opens on September 25, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a romantic drama about a Chicago librarian (Eric Bana) with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage. Starring Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, The Time Traveler’s Wife opens on August 14, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Star Trek is the origin story of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise before they had boldly gone where no man had gone before. The film stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk in "Star Trek"

Star Trek begins its journey with Captain George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) taking over U.S.S. Kelvin as acted captain after its original captain, Captain Robau goes on board Romulan’s ship. Captain Kirk is ordered to autopilot the ship after evacuating the ship, however, due to limited resources, the ship is not able to autopilot itself and thus, Kirk sacrifices himself by staying in the ship. His wife is giving birth in one of the capsules ejected from the ship when he is in the ship colliding with Romulan’s spacecraft and he saves 800 lives. Captain Robau is killed by Nero (Eric Bana), the Romulan villain when Robau tells Nero he doesn’t know of a man named Spock.

Back in the future, in Iowa, young James T. Kirk (Jimmy Bennett) is a rebellious teenager. He drives an old vintage car at a very high speed and is even chased by the officer until he has to jump out from the car when it reaches the edge and falls off the mountain. When James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) grows up, he picks up a fight with some Starfleet cadets over a girl named Uhura (Zoe Saldana). Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), the captain of the Enterprise whom has stopped the fight invites Kirk to enlist himself in Starfleet. He mentions Kirk’s dad whom has saved 800 lives by being the captain of the starship for only twelve minutes.

James T. Kirk shows up the next day and together with Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) and many others enlist themselves as they aboard U.S.S. Enterprise. Kirk tries to pass the Kobayashi Maru test by cheating after failing it three times. The test is devised by no other than Spock, a half-Vulcan and half-human (after his father married a human). When called for an emergency action onboard the newly created U.S.S. Enterprise to battle Romulan villain, Nero, Kirk is left out as he is being suspended for cheating. His buddy, Bones fakes a medical emergency to get Kirk on board the Enterprise.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in "Star Trek"

In the Enterprise, Kirk realizes the starship is in danger when he remembers the past occurrence and tries to warn Captain Pike, but he is initially being ignored. However, when Uhura and Spock support his statement, Captain Pike begins to trust Kirk. On a mission to land on board Romulan’s ship, Captain Pike promotes Kirk into the First Officer while Spock takes over as acting captain. Kirk, Sulu (John Cho) and Chief Engineer Olsen (Greg Ellis) try to land on the giant drill belonging to the Romulan but Olsen does not land successfully and is killed in the process. Despite eliminating the enemies on the drill, Kirk and Sulu fail to save planet Vulcan as Nero manages to release a red capsule into the center of planet Vulcan, which transforms itself into a black hole absorbing planet Vulcan. While Spock manages to save his family, he has lost his mother and 6 billion Vulcans have perished.

Back in the Enterprise, Kirk disobeys Spock’s order and is expelled from the ship into a deserted planet. There, he has to run for his life when a huge monster gives him a chase but he’s safe when another man scares the creature away with a torch — that man happens to be future Spock. Then the older Spock (Leonard Nimoy) shows Kirk how he ends up in the deserted planet. He is unable to prevent a sun from going supernova and destroying the Romulan home planet in the process, thus, he is blamed for the tragedy by a Romulan miner named Nero. Spock then brings Kirk to an abandon starfleet where he meets Scotty (Simon Pegg), an engineer with a Scottish accent. His knowledge of teleportation is not perfect and the aged Spock just knows the equation and thus, Kirk and Scotty manage to teleport themselves into the Enterprise.

Kirk challenges Spock’s instability and takes over as captain of the Enterprise when Spock punches Kirk before he resigns. When the Romulan sets their target to Earth, Kirk and Spock set their feet onto the vengeful Romulan ship and together, they manage to destroy the Romulan and save planet Earth.

Overall, Star Trek is surprisingly delightful to watch despite not being a Trekkie fan. Zachary Quinto gives an outstanding performance as Spock. Nonetheless, Chris Pine is also brilliant in portraying a young captain in James T. Kirk and together, these two actors give Star Trek a new breathe of life. Marvellous.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 1%

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a superhero movie based on the fictional character Wolverine. it is the prequel to the X-Men film trilogy. The film stars Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan/James.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"

In 1845 James Howlett sees his dad (Peter O’Brien) killed by Victor Creed’s dad (Aaron Jeffery). Furious, James kills Victor’s dad by using bone claws which extend from his hands. Before Creed dies, he tells James that he is also his son as James and Victor escape.

As they grow up, James (Hugh Jackman) and his half-brother, Victor (Liev Schreiber) are seen battling for the US in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, Victor attacks and kills his superior and is sentenced to death together with his brother. They survive the firing squad due to their regenerative abilities and are imprisoned. William Stryker (Danny Huston) then approaches the two mutants and offers them to join his Team X, which consists of other mutants — Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), John Wraith (will.i.am), Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan), as well as expert marksman David “Agent Zero” North (Daniel Henney) and blade-wielding Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds). The brothers join the group, and Stryker sends it to search for the source of adamantium in Nigeria. After an incident where Stryker orders the team to kill innocent civilians, Logan refuses and leaves the team.

A few years later, Logan works as a logger in Canada and lives with his girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). When Victor hunts down and kills Bradley, Stryker locates Logan to warn him someone from the now-disbanded Team-X is out to kill the remaining members. Logan refuses to help and as a result, his love interest is murdered by Victor. Logan hunts down Victor for revenge but is easily defeated. Stryker offers Logan help to kill Victor by infusing Logan’s skeletal system with adamantium. After the procedure, Stryker orders to erase Logan’s mind but Wolverine hears it and escapes the premise nakedly.

When an elderly couple sees Wolverine running around naked and goes into their barn for shelter, the old man enters the barn discreetly with a rifle only to end up offering Wolverine clothes, food and shelter. The next morning, the elderly couple are shot dead by Agent Zero. Wolverine flees in a motorcycle and eventually kills Agent Zero. Wolverine locates former teammates, John Wraith and Fred Dukes, seeking to learn about the whereabout of Stryker’s secret island only to find out Creed and Stryker are working together to roundup mutants and keep them in the island for experiments. Dukes reveals that a mutant named Remy LeBeau a.k.a. Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) had escaped from the island and would know the location. Wolverine learns that Team X had been tasked with capturing mutants, which was the reason why Wraith had left the group.

Wolverine finds Gambit in a bar only to be blown out of the bar by Gambit’s deck of cards. Outside the building, he sees Victor who has just finished off Wraith. With his adamantium claws, Logan manages to defeat Victor but is attacked by Gambit. Victor flees realizing he can’t match Logan’s superior ability. Gambit tries to escape but Wolverine manages to pin him down and persuade Gambit to take him to Stryker’s secret island.

Gambit flies his private plane won from gambling and drops Wolverine off at the location, Three Mile Island. In the lab, Wolverine confronts Stryker and learns Silverfox is still alive — she had earlier faked her death to lure Wolverine into becoming Weapon X because of her deal with Stryker who promises he would release her captive mutant sister Emma (Tahyna Tozzi) who has the ability to turn her skin into diamond. Wolverine leaves the premise disappointedly but when he hears Silverfox screams, Wolverine goes back and attack Victor and once again, easily defeats him. Silverfox convinces Wolverine to release her sister and other captive.

Stryker prematurely orders Weapon XI to be activated to kill Wolverine. Weapon XI is formerly Deadpool and consists of other mutant powers, including Cyclops’ optic blast, Wolverine regenerative ability, Deadpool’s martial arts ability and Wraith’s teleportation ability and retractable adamantium blades from his arm. Wolverine orders Silverfox to bring the young mutants to safety while he stays on to fight Weapon XI. Silverfox is injured during the escape while the other mutants manage to escape in Professor Charles Xavier’s (Patrick Stewart) helicopter.

When Weapon XI almost kills Wolverine, Victor appears and saves him. Together, they manage to defeat Weapon XI when Wolverine cuts off Weapon XI’s head with his adamantium claws heated with powerful optic blast. Wolverine is shot by the head by Stryker with adamantium bullets which makes him unconscious and wakes up with amnesia. Although Silverfox manages to use her power of persuasion to make Stryker walk away, she dies from bleeding. Gambit then returns to tell Wolverine that the young mutants are safe, but due to the amnesia Wolverine does not remember anything. When the cops arrive, Wolverine decides not to follow Gambit and flees the scene.

Before the ending credits, Stryker is seen walking until the armies stop him and he is wanted for investigation for murdering General Munson.

Overall, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a successful X-Men film far better than the X-Men trilogy as the movie doesn’t just focus on the mutant abilities and although there are less fighting scenes, the movie has a strong storyline of the origins of Wolverine and before the formation of X-Men.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

Popularity: 2%