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.

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.

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.

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.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Chun Li (played by Kristin Kreuk) is kicking ass in "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li "

The movie starts with Chun Li as a young girl learning wushu from her father. Chun Li is another typical young girl whom her parents have groomed into a concert pianist. As a teenager, Chun Li saw her father kidnapped by Bison (Neal McDonough) and his crony, although she was left unharmed. When she grows up, she seeks revenge for what Bison has done to her father.

After one of her typical concerts, she receives a strange scroll with ancient Chinese written all over it. She gets the help of a woman in a store who seems to understand ancient Chinese and tells her to go to Bangkok as her destiny awaits her there to meet a stranger called Gen (Robin Shou). Together with the help of Gen whom mysteriously turns up out of nowhere, Chun Li finds Bison as she knows her father is still alive.

Along the way, Chun Li faces Cantana (Josie Ho), Vega (Taboo of Black Eyed Peas) and Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Charlie Nash (Chris Klein), the Interpol who wants to nab Bison for the crime he did.

The only signature move you’ll see in the movie is Chun Li’s Spinning Bird Kick. Chun Li can even do a Hadouken after trained by Gen. Otherwise, the fighting scenes in the movie are quite ordinary and boring.

The movie is generally disappointing with very shallow storyline. The characters do not have enough depth, sometimes, the actors playing these characters seem to have just enrolled into an acting school. Kristin Kreuk is best to stay in Television while Michael Clarke Duncan should remain as a Lycan in Underworld series. The special effects are quite pathetic as well, with the sound mixing going the wrong direction.

Overall, the movie is a lousy B-grade movie that wastes time and money. I would say any Paris Hilton’s film, Uwe Boll’s movies and any of the parody movies (i.e. Epic Movie, Disaster Movie) even surpass the film of this caliber.

My ratings: 3 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly and Jaden Smith in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

The people of earth are in panic when an object travels fast toward earth and is expected to destroy earth. However, it lands on earth as a bright sphere. An alien named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) greets Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) but is shot by one of the soldiers. He is immediately taken to the operating theater. After being operated, he has quickly transformed into a human-like alien. When the United States Secretary of Defense, Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) meets Klaatu and questions him, Klaatu is reluctant and his negative opinion of the human race grows even more when she he is barred from speaking to the leaders of the world, he decides the human should be exterminated so the planet can survive.

Klaatu says to Dr. Benson, "If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives."

At Klaatu’s command, Gort turns into a swarm of nanites that destroy everything in its path. Dr. Helen Benson and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) finally convince Klaatu the humans are worth saving as human can change and Klaatu walks through the nanites to touch the sphere which emits a massive EMP which kills all the nanites. But, at the same time, all human’s technology is rendered useless.

Overall, the movie is superb at its visual effect but lacks a storyline. Keanu Reeves played Klaatu impressively, he is almost like a humanoid robot in the film. The funny part is when Klaatu speaks Mandarin with Mr. Wu (James Hong) even though both of them converse in English afterward. However, there is a lot of substance missing from the film, particularly the thriller effect which movies like "I Am Legend" has.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh and Melanie Thierry in "Babylon A.D."

The movie begins with the voice of Vin Diesel telling the stories of his life. He mentioned that everyday we see signs of saving the planet but from who? From ourselves? Then he said “I’m tired, tired of it all.”

Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a retired war soldier and lives a war torn life in Eastern Europe. He is having breakfast when a SWAT team busts in to bring him to Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu). Gorsky wants Toorop to take the job of escorting a woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) from Eastern Europe to New York. Toorop demands half a million and Gorsky agrees.

Toorop then goes inside a car which is carried by a helicopter to a Mongolia convent where Sister Rebecca (Michelle Yeoh) is waiting for him. She tells Toorop that wherever Aurora goes, she will goes with her.

So, the journey begins and the three set off to a train station in Kazakhstan where a bomb detonates but Aurora has predicted it and they survive.

Then, they stop at Vladivostok nightclub as Toorop plans to meet his friend, Finn (Mark Strong) there who can provide transport to the United States. Some unidentified men show up and offers Toorop a million dollar, tax free. Somehow, Toorop prefers half a million dollar better and fights them off and tries to escape with Sister Rebecca and Aurora but he ends up in a cage which is staging Ultimate Fighting Championship-style death matches as Aurora is protected by the fighter. Toorop has no choice but to survive by killing him off.

The men who tries to kidnap Aurora claim they are sent by Aurora’s father, which Sister Rebecca and Aurora have thought he has been long dead, which makes Toorop even more confused. Somewhat, he still stays with the girls and they have to fight their way into a submarine before arriving in North America.

In North America, snowmobiles await them and they travel at a high speed but is tracked down and chased by fighter jets. Toorop distracts the jets and even escapes at least two guided missiles before plunging his snowmobile into one of the jets causing both to explode. Miraculously, Toorop survives.

When they finally reach New York — in which the futuristic New York is pictured with more skyscrapers and tonnes of electronic billboards, Toorop prepares to hand in Aurora to Gorsky’s men whom in turn will hand her in to Neolite Priestess (Charlotte Rampling). However, a television channel reports news of the Mongolian convent being bombed has changed Toorop’s mind. Instead of handling her to either one of the gangs, he opens fire and once again they run. Only now, Toorop learns that Aurora is the host to an organism that has the potential to become the next Messiah and everybody wants to get their hands on it. But it’s too late as Aurora fires a shot at him to prevent him being killed by a guided missile.

Toorop is later resurrected by Aurora’s creator, Darquandier. Toorop is seen with artificial leg and his right arm is fitted with metals. Although, Toorop manages to find Aurora in the end, it is unknown how Aurora dies as she gives birth to twin girls of whom Aurora hands them to Toorop’s care.

Overall, it is a movie with a good storyline. However, Vin Diesel seems like a very tired mercenary whom at first willing to transport Aurora to New York for half a million dollar but refuses a million dollar, tax-free?

Unlike what Toorop said earlier in the movie, “I learned something that day: you can’t always walk away. Too bad it was the day I died”, you can still walk away from this movie.

My ratings: 5 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The first prototype of Iron Man

Iron Man stars Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as a billionaire industrialist whose core business is making weapons. While testing Stark Industries’ latest missile creation called "The Jericho" in Afghanistan, he is kidnapped by a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist organization who called themselves "Ten Rings".

The film then goes back 36 hours earlier to show what happens before Stark’s journey in Afghanistan, which includes a one-night stand with a reporter named Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb).

Back to the future, though critically injured and almost die, Stark is saved by Yinsen (Shaun Toub), a mysterious stranger who comes to his rescue. Miraculously, Yinsen is multilingual and knows many languages, from Arab to Urdu to Mongolian. Yinsen uses an electromagnet which keeps the shrapnel from piercing Stark’s heart.

As the terrorists of "Ten Rings" enters the cave Stark and Yinsen are hiding, they both surrender and Stark is forced to create "The Jericho" missile for them. As Yinsen persuades Stark to find a way out of there, Stark first creates a very technologically-advanced heart for himself before building the rest of Iron Man. When the leader of Ten Rings suspects Stark is not working on "The Jericho" missile, he almost kills Yinsen whose life is only spared as Stark undoubtedly tells the terrorist leader that he needs Yinsen as he is a good assistant. Stark manages to create the ultimate bulletproof suit of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers and releases himself from his captor but Yinsen dies in the process while trying to help Stark to buy time.

However, since the Iron Man suit is the first creation, it fails after flying in midair and crashed onto a desert with the Iron Man suit fall apart into a thousand pieces only to have Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) to rescue Stark.

Now back at the States, his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and especially his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is extremely happy to see him alive and kicking. When Potts insists to bring Stark to the hospital for checkup, all Stark wants is a Burger King’s Cheeseburger and to call for an immediate press conference. In the press conference, Stark requests all the reporters to sit down while he eats his cheeseburger. He immediately announces the shut down of Stark Industries weapon manufacturing to which his partner, Stane strongly disapproves.

Back at home, Stark builds a more advanced heart for himself and gets Potts to replace his "old" heart which he tells Potts to throw and burn it. Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. After numerous testings, his advanced armor suit ends up in gold with red paint. Almost immediately, Stark puts in his latest Iron Man suit, flies to Gulmira, Afghanistan and kills the terrorists who at that point of time are kidnapping women and children and killing men.

The improved Iron Man in gold and red

Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorists manage to find pieces of armor left by Stark. The leader of Ten Rings, Raza (Faran Tahir) is seen meeting Stane in discussion of the remained of the armor suits found in the desert. Despite being the man who sells weapons to Ten Rings, Stane orders his men to finish off the remainders of the terrorists and left the place with the armor suit.

Back in United States, Stane gathers a group of scientists to build a more advanced Iron Man called Iron Monger. The only thing missing is the way too technological-advanced heart that Stark has built for himself. So, Stane uses a disapproved highly-advanced sound wave weapon to temporarily immobilize Stark in order to grab his heart.

Stark is lucky as his assistant, Potts has kept his "old" heart in a properly framed glass which simply says “Stark has a heart”. He struggles to reach the framed glass but his robotic assistant lends him a hand.

The fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger then pursues but not for long before the film ends with Tony Stark at a press conference revealing himself as the Iron Man.

Overall, the movie is awesome and is possibly the best-ever film adapted from a comic book. Funny, smart and properly plotted, this is probably the best movie so far for the 2008 movies.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

P/S: Do look out for Stan Lee’s cameo appearance in the movie.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In CJ7, Stephen Chow plays a poor Chinese laborer, known only as Ti Chow who has to work very hard in order to send his son, Dicky (who is actually played by a girl, Xu Jiao) to a private school. A rich and snobbish kid in his school shows off a cool robotic toy, known as CJ1 makes Dicky also wants a CJ1. But since Ti has spent all his hard-earned money to send Dicky to a private school, he has no money left for such luxury toys. One day, while Ti is searching for a usable pair of shoes for Dicky from the garbage, he ends up finding a round green ball instead. So, he gives the “new toy” to his son.

At first, the “new toy” is almost useless, but the next day, it transforms into an “alien toy dog”, which Dicky simply calls by the name CJ7.

CJ7 is a cool alien toy dog

CJ7 is able to make a rotten apple into a fresh, juicy one. Therefore, Dicky has had a dream in which CJ7 is able to fight fierce ferocious stray dog on the street and able to invent cool gadgets for him to pass his exam with flying colors and excel in sports. However, when Dicky brings CJ7 to face the stray dog, CJ7 ends up getting beaten up by the dog instead. And when he brings him to school, all CJ7 can produce is very cute poo. As Dicky becomes angry, he takes Dicky to the toilet and forces him to produce something for him so he can score 100% in his exam. Instead, CJ7 shoots more poos like a machine gun towards Dicky. Dicky then decides to abandon CJ7 since he’s useless.

When Dicky realizes it was his own fault, he tries to find CJ7 in the garbage can but the garbage truck has taken all the garbage away.

Stephen Chow and Xu Jiao with CJ7

Dicky goes home disappointed only to find out CJ7 is at home, found by his dad. His dad is somewhat surprised that his son already knows CJ7. The movie then shows even an “alien dog” has emotions. When the toy dog realizes Ti and his son feel way too warm since the new fan Ti has bought is not working, CJ7 uses his magical power to repair the fan so that both Dicky and his dad can sleep more soundly.

Ti decides to keep CJ7 away from his son when he has found out that Dicky only gets 0 mark in his exam instead of the 100, which he added on the report card. Dicky has decided to stay with his teacher, Miss Yuen (Kitty Zhang Yuqi), as he is mad with his dad.

Ti has earlier lost his job after his argument with his boss. When he goes back to work, his boss rewards him an “ang pow” instead, and apologizes for saying Ti’s son a cheater. Unfortunately, while Ti is working, he accidentally falls from a tall building and is announced dead in the hospital.

Dicky does not want to believe his dad is dead even when Miss Yuen tells him so. He cries and he shuts off Miss Yuen and says he wanted to sleep so that when he wakes up the next day, he can see his dad besides him. The next day, when Dicky wakes up, he really sees his dad sleeping besides him. Dicky is surprised but he straightaway hugs his clueless dad. Earlier, CJ7 has used his magical power to resurrect Ti. Somehow, CJ7 has become weak as a result of using too much power in order to resurrect Ti. Before long, CJ7 dies and transforms into an embroidered keychain!

Dicky doesn’t give up and keeps on talking to CJ7, in hoping he will wake up someday. One hopeful day, Dicky and his dad bumps into an UFO. And when the UFO has landed, dozens of “alien toy dogs” are seen running towards them! In the ending scenes, we can see the school children do not fight each other anymore, instead they date each other! Even Dicky’s dad is dating the hot and sexy Miss Yuen. I wish my teachers were as hot as Miss Yuen.

Ti dates Miss Yuen (played by Kitty Zhang), the hot school teacher

My ratings: 8 out of 10. Why? The movie might not have the special effects like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. It might not be as humorous as Stephen Chow’s previous films, but it has all the elements that will make you laugh and then make you cry. Really great acting from Xu Jiao, whom Stephen Chow even said “She is a born actor and such a genius. In fact, she’s an even better actor than I am.” While at it, the movie reminds us a few things in life — Number 1: Don’t lie, cheat or steal even if you are poor, Number 2: Don’t take things for granted, life comes and goes like every other things; your loved ones may be gone when you least expected, so treasure them!

Contrary to what most people said about Michael Bay’s movies, Transformers (2007) is probably directed by the most suitable person as Michael Bay managed to prove all the critics wrong by creating such an awesome masterpiece. Although the new Transformers movie has the robots changed its shapes and transformations from the original, they are nevertheless awesome and most suitable for a movie for this generation compared to the 1986 movie. In the making of Transformers, Michael Bay admitted there were more than 10,000 parts just for Optimus Prime – and I believe he means the parts in CGI form.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie started with the AllSpark cube floating aimlessly in the space after a humongous war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. The cube somewhat landed on no other than Earth. Although Megatron managed to get to Earth before any other Transformers, but he was frozen and dormant. The puzzling thing is, what actually made Megatron frozen? It could be the temperature in the Arctic Circle, but somewhat Megatron managed to kill Sam Witwicky’s grandpa, Captain Witwicky before he got frozen. While Captain Witwicky managed to find the location of the AllSpark cube, he got killed and the rest of the crews somehow transported the gigantic cube back to the States using whatever means they have (they didn’t show this part). Despite the puzzling parts, the movie continues with Blackout (Decepticon) landed in US military base in Qatar and a huge fight scene pursues. Or its more like a one-way war with Blackout destroying almost everything in the base and left only a few survivors.

As the people in the Pentagon found out that Blackout (or an unidentified being at that moment) was attempting to hack into Pentagon to dig some information and all they have got was a signal, they setup many different groups of highly intellectual people (geeks) to investigate and identify the signal. Maggie Madsen (Rachael Taylor) and her team managed to find out that the signal belongs to a living robot with DNA cells but Defense Secretary John Keller (Jon Voight) did not believe in a thing she said unless she has the evidence. As a last resort, she then copied the highly classified data using a 2GB SD card and went to her friend/adviser, Glen Whitmann’s (Anthony Anderson) house to uncover the data. Somewhat the defense department managed to trace them in somewhat a very short time and FBI caught Maggie and Glen.

Then the movie takes us to the classroom where Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to present something in his history class. He talked about his grandpa, Captain Witwicky’s great exploration and discovery but ensues to auction off the items (including the glasses) in the classroom with a mouth of words to his eBay auction. His teacher initially gave him a “B-” but he managed to convince him to change it to “A-” which means he gets to get his dad to pay half of his first car, which led us to Bumblebee, initially a 1974 Chevrolet Camaro (later on transforms into a 2008 Chevrolet Camaro). After getting his car, Sam was of course, in pursue of girls, which led us to Mikaela (Megan Fox).

That’s all the story I will reveal as I am quite a bit worried that the FBI will track me down as the US-release is only July 3. LoL!

The movie has a lot of elements which include the Internet age, i.e. eBay, illegal music downloads, etc. which was quite humorous in a way. Somewhat, this movie is highly commercialized with GM’s Chevrolet, Nokia, eBay, etc. If you haven’t watched the Burger King’s ad, watch it here.

Overall, the movie is just freaking awesome. Definitely, “more than meets the eye!” I will watch it in the cinema the second time, the third time and will get the DVD version and watch it on iMax. Anyone wants to watch it with me? I promise I won’t tell. LoL!

Some models displaying the latest PDA’s and clothing line

Movie Props Making Workshop by Movia Mania, Singapore

Some girls from SMK Bandar Utama dancing

Elektra from the movie Elektra

Some models displaying the latest PDA’s and clothing line and make-ups from Fling and Elianto

Stormtrooper from Star Wars

Freddie The Nightmare

Predator

Jason From Hell

Predator, Jason From Hell, Chicken Little and Elektra

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (hiding, LoL!)

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (now, he’s standing on the left!)

Eragon (sitting first from left), Freddie, Jason, Stormtrooper, Predator, Chicken Little, Elektra and Batman (this Batman has a low profile, no pun intended. LoL!)

Chicken Little and Elektra. Chicken Little is quite horny. He even shook his butt . Damn pervert!

The entire gang

Chicken Little’s moving away

Elektra