A premonition most likely…

I had this dream early Sunday morning (madaling araw), I was in a church in Maysilo, the one my family would always go to for Mass every Sunday and me being the leading character of this whole joint, was present.

We sang some church songs here and there, from “Papuri” to “Paghahandog” to “Kordero ng Diyos” to “Humayo’t Ihayag…” and I felt like nothing’s wrong was going on.

It was when I turned to my right and saw the choir looking at me…Staring at me like as if they were trying to tell me something.

I turned red because, maybe in my dream, I was supposed to do something. Something important, life-changing, and unthinkinkable, not even unheard of.

I (in the dream) was thinking of something that I should have done quite a while ago at the time, something that has something to do with…

I’m still reeling from wounds inflicted by Fox’s cancellation of my favorite sci fi guilty pleasure, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The only way for me lessen the pain is for me to watch the latest installment of the Terminator franchise, entitled “Salvation”.

T4 is set in the continuity of T3 and thus ignoring the events of TSCC. Viewers were introduced to a apocalyptic world after Judgement Day saw the rise of SkyNet, which in T3 became self-aware and perceived humans as threats. it then created terminators to hunt down humans to kill and/or harvest them for SkyNet’s use.

The movie is led by Christian Bale as “John Connor”, the one prophesied to lead the human race into victory and bring about the fall of SkyNet. In order to prevent this, SkyNet sent terminators back in time to kill John, or in the first movie, kill her mother. Other characters include Connor’s wife from T3, Kate Brewster (or Kate Connor now in T4), a mute girl named Star, a cyborg (second lead) named Marcus Wright, and a very young Kyle Reese.

According to the continuity, Kyle was sent back in time by John to save his mother, Sarah, but was unaware that he was destined to become John’s father. Thus in T4, John tried to look for his father because he knows that Kyle is the “key of salvation”, for if SkyNet get theirs hands on him, there won’t be any John Connor, so on and so forth. That’s where marcus came into the picture…

Marcus was in 2003, a convict slated for death row. Before he died, he donated his body to Cyberdine Industries for medical research. But after Judgement Day, Skynet made him a cyborg, a cross between a human and a terminator. He has a conscious, a brain, and a living heart found inside a chunk of metal for a body plastered with human skin. He didn’t knew that he actually brought Kyle to Skynet thus he needed John’s help to save him.

I don’t want to spoil much about the movie, save for the review, but at the movie’s end was another open-ending giving us an idea that there’s going to be another movie in the works.

My take:

The movie obviously didn’t rely too much on special effects to drive the movie. Character development was more emphasized to produce a kind of storytelling relevant yet still entertaining. What’s more is that because the movie was rated PG13 (the early films were R rated), it kinda toned down the gore and violence usually seen in the franchise including the TV series. The closest thing it could get was a guy in a submerged helicopter “chopped” to death by a eel-like terminator.

With the question about continuity, somehow it kinda made sense that John was indeed destined to die at the hands by a T-800 (special CG cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger) as predicted in T3. In T4, John was almost unable to make it out alive but because of the sacrifice made by Marcus, John was able to live on longer (because T5 is sure to happen).

I wasn’t able to see the early part of the 1st Terminator movie but I’m guessing that the John Connor that was portrayed there was already old when he sent back Kyle to the 1980’s so hopefully, this is going to happen in a future film. There’s bound to be problems with how the continuity is going to play out as far as T4 is concerned. T2 obviously changed the timeline completely by delaying J-Day (as how in TSCC, Sarah and John traveled 10 years into the “present” timeline to stop Judgement Day and in the end John was sent to the future, meeting his father-to-be Kyle Reese). But despite the changes occurred, elements of great importance are ever more present nonetheless like the meeting of John and Kyle as well as the existence of Sarah’s taped voice recordings to John (special cameo by Linda Hamilton).

My not-so-good take:

T4 also have its own share of problems, if you could call them “problems” actually. the movie is split in two different points of view, one from John Connor, the other from Marcus Wright. Like a balancing beam, the movie is focused too much on Marcus and less on John. Although we get to see how his character played out, it kinda made me wondering whatever happened to John right on the middle of the movie. I guess it’s just me because the actor who played Marcus was indeed a scene stealer for T4.

The supporting characters (Kate, Kyle, Blair, etc) were also given due relevance in the story and most if not all were used that necessitates their presence, not a one dimensional character hang onto a wallpaper.

I may have missed it but I feel certain that the trailer was a bit deceiving with what they showed early on. In the trailer, John said something about the futre was not the “future” his mother warned him about, but there wasn’t a scene that showed him said that nor anything else in relation that would have made a great impact to the movie as a whole.

Nevertheless, the movie is still worth your Php150 movie ticket. There was never a dull moment and more or less, the movie is very satisfying indeed. It may have flaws but it is outnumbered by a lot of good points.

Okay…weird first day I had a while ago. At least during the morning it was. First were the swarm of HRIM students in front of CSB Main, all wearing white. Then the increasing swarm of frosh in the SDA lobby. Good thing I went to schoool early, let’s say 6:50am. My first class started at 8am.

Vidprod1 is the name of the my first and only class of the day. And I had quite a lot of familiar faces as classmates: Justine, Katriz, Jam, Alyssa-not-the-Matias, and classmates from past subjects. One thing I noticed later on: I’m the only guy in a class full of girls!

Vidprod1 is basically all about scriptwriting and my prof’s pretty much veteran in his field of expertise. Sir Dodos in his orientation, encourage us to watch a lot of films and television shows to help us understand how scripts work. Good thing I’m planning on watching Terminator Salvation next week XD!

Later as the day progresses, I attended a meeting with regards to CG Overdrive ’09 and everything that has to do with it. I finally got some clarifications with a lot of stuff about the event and I hope things go very well by June 15.

A half-day well enjoyed. Thank God, He is Good!

This is definitely getting a vote of 5 for reasons unknown! Hehehe kidding.

Got to watch the final episode of 90210’s freshman season and I must say, I was stoked, speechless, and amazed. This is the kind of show that viewers of the series as well as of the whole 90210 franchise wanted to see from the new spin-off. Thanks to new showrunner, Rebecca Sinclar (credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls), she was able to turn the show around and cleaned up the mess made by previous EP’s, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who took over from Rob Thomas (the series creator of 90210 and of Veronica Mars) who left because of creative differences with the other producers.

Note, skip the synopsis if you just want to read the review.

Synopsis: Picking up from the prom night episode, “Zero Tolerance”, “One Party Could Ruin Your Summer” brings us to a D.L. after-prom party initiated by Naomi at her house in the Hills. Some of her West Beverly High peers bore some hatred on good girl Annie (they thought it was her who told her principal dad about one of the students’ own after-prom party on the previous episode).

“Unconventional sex guy” Ethan became open about his feeling towards quirky bi-polar Silver despite being god friends with her beau, “Dixie” Dixon. bad booy Liam got turned off after he thought Naomi blabbed what he shared with her when Naomi’s evil sister Jen (he didn’t knew she was HER sis!) talked about it and as revenge, they had SEX (Eww, as if Jen being Ethan’s “first” was not gross enough!).

Annie during the party found the one who first thought it was her who tattled about the party, drunk and vomitting. She asked Annie if she could drive her home (which she did). Meanwhile, Adrianna went into labor and had to undergo a C-Section. Navid accopanied her to the hospital, later followed by Naomi, Kelly (Silver’s sister), Principal Harry and his wife Debbie, and surprisingly Brenda (Shanne Doherty) who appeared to Ad in two instances! Brenda wanted a child f her own that’s why she went to China, so she could adopt a baby from that country. Harry and Debbie somewhat got high after eating some brownies they didn’t know were laden with marijuana.

Naomi went home to check on the party, and when she found out that Liam had sex with a girl she was furious. She found Annie’s *something* which was at Jen’s possession earlier. She thought Annie had sex with him so she went downstairs to confront her. Liam found out he was used by Jen. Annie can’t seem to comprehend but she was pretty much got the brunt of Naomi’s misplaced anger, and so were the rest of West Bev, calling her a “Kansan Skank”. Poor Annie also got doused with a drink.

Feeling angry, bitter, and betrayed, Good Girl blew her top like a volcano and cursed Naomi and the rest of the student body. She stormed out, but not without anyone knowing she called the police and finally “tattled” about the party as revenge.

Ending? Naomi’s house was stormed by the police, Ethan kissed Silver, Silver was left with a decision, Dixon is now at odds with both Dixon and Ethan, Ad finally gave her baby up to the couple she called for her adoption, Navid was beside her the whole time, Liam was “kidnapped” by man-abductors, and Annie was droving off the road the next morning with a bottle of vodka she stole from the party. A car was following her with a sudden emphasis with the car’s plate number. The end of season one.

Review: First of is my good critique.

Jen is the most b!tchy since she arrived two episode ago. Like a banana, every episode we got to see who she really is one by one with no definite reason of her true intentions. I wonder how this would drastically affect the rest of the characters come second season. Meanwhile, I’m amazed with Annie’s sudden change of character from being a perky goody-two shoes to being a perky volcano. This is probably Shenae Grime’s best highlight with her character since the show began. The change that occured to Annie would certainly impress a lot of people who’ve long been complained for being “perky perfect”. Silver’s character evolution really impressed me this season and I’m glad her old pre-bipolar self is back. I now wonder how the inevitably short-live love traingle would progress knowing Dustin Milligan (Ethan) is leaving in Season 2 (he’ll be guest starring by then probably to finish up his storyline). The recurring series subplot, the adventure of the Wilson parents, never failed me to laugh my butt off seeing how this supercouple somehow gives viewers a brief escape from the main plot of the episode. I’m curious though how they would react with Annie’s stint at the unmonitored party next season.

And yes, Kelly and Brenda are also back together on the season finale, although not together onscreen. The dream sequence also got me fooled when they showed a room of a dying Jim Walsh, Brenda’s dad from the original BH90210 which turned out to be untrue (At least to give old viewers a break after learning of Kelly and Silver’s mom returning to her alcoholism, and Donna and David being legally separated.). And yeah, I was amazed with the kind of closure given to Brenda who seems to be very happy adopting a child despite the drama she experienced for the past few episodes. Wishful thinking she could return to the zip once again for a couple more episodes. And finally, I’m just sick of brotha Dixon being a spoiled brat to his beau. In a good way, I got to feel my pity to Silver and anger towards Dixie. They don’t call me a dedicated fanboy for nothin’!

Best highlight of the episode was the conluding scenes showing all the characters of season one. Outrating the rest of those scene is the closing shot of Annie driving off on the road. It’s something people would have wanted but never expected that it would turned out like it. A thought-provoking and speechless cliffhanger ending indeed!

Bad critique? Ethan has got have the most ridiculous character development for season one. Not only have we failed to see more of his personal life in past episode, we never got to see who Ethan really as an individual. Writers made him more of a play thing between frienemies Annie and Naomi. Worst of all, he was given the impression of being a sexually-hungry guy after it was revealed he have long cheated on Naomi way way before (and I’m calling this child abuse, Jen!). And because Dustin Milligan is no longer going to be a series regular next season, I’m hoping that ever he still get to have his storyline end properly this fall, he get to end it well. Milligan’s a loss to the show, since he is of all the members of the cast, the most charismatic actor who breathed life into Ethan.

Another letdown is the lack of a Kelly-Brenda scene on the finale. I just can’t imagine that they’ve already seen each other off-screen unless it was mentioned onscreen. However, the participation of BH90210 alums in the spin-off is expected to become more minimal since Rebecca Sinclar already stated the need to focus 90210 more on its own core characters and not rely too much on past ones.

Somehow, 90210’s future seems to be set on the right direction. Let’s hope that 90210 by then become a stand-out and eclipse the success of its mother show!

90210’s quotable quotes:

Annie: Screw you, Naomi! Screw all of you!

Liam: Give me my shirt.
Jen: I forgot how cute teenage boys can be when they’re upset.

Debbie: The problem is, we can’t drive anywhere because we’re stoned.