Have you realized there are lots of end of world / apocalypse / aftermath of apocalypse type of movie this year has got to offer? And they said 2012 was supposedly the year where our world came to an end (news flash: it didn't happen). So what, this is the sequel to 2012?

It will begin with the open of Oblivion in April, where Tom Cruise lives on earth 60 years after aliens destroyed it.It also stars Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough & ex-Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko. The trailer looks interesting and visually stunning... that is until the second half where all the typical sci-fi action begins.

Then there's After Earth in June, where Will Smith and mini Will Smith wander across an abandoned earth 1000 years after cataclysmic events that made humans leaving it behind. Another visually stunning trailer, but it's from M. Night Shyamalan, don't go in with too much expectation.

Also in June, there's World War Z, an apocalyptic horror film where Brad Pitt battles the zombies. Okay, from the trailer it looks like another "War of the Worlds" with zombies replacing aliens (remember that Tom Cruise movie? I did, cause I laughed through the whole movie with the ridiculous plot and everything). Or, I would call it "Zombieland minus the laugh".

In August, we have Elysium. According to the plot summary, it is supposedly telling a story where two classes of people exist, and one of them living on an overpopulated, ruined earth. Ruined earth, see? Haven't seen the trailer yet, so no comment on it. But I don't quite fond of a bald Damon.








Unknown release date of Snowpiercer doesn't stop me from counting this in. According to the plot line, this is about "after a failed experiment to stop global warming, an Ice Age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snow Piercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine."








As if the above are not enough, I have not counted in the below for one reason or another:

(1) The Host: Yes, I realized it's not apocalyptic or ruined earth, but an earth full of human bodies containing alien souls? That's pretty much not the earth anymore.

(2) Iron Man 3, Thor 2 & Pacific Rim: There are villains or aliens trying to destroy earth, but human defends it nonetheless. I think the movie makers will not let the earth ends... not yet, not until they have extracted enough money out of it after 20 sequels being made.

(3) Hunger Games 2: It's set in the post-apocalyptic future where a rebellion against the Capitol took place75 years prior to the story, and USA is called Panem. Since this is the second installment already so I don't officially put it in the above list.

Did I miss any movie? I think I must have been, since I realized there are a lot of sci-fi movies released this year, and most of them are set in the future and when filmmakers see the future they always envision it as a ruined world after some sort of war or alien invasion. If I do miss out any, please let me know.

Random Thoughts After Watching "Beautiful Creatures"

Random thoughts after watching “Beautiful Creatures” (this is not a review, just random notes)

(1) I admit I have never heard of this YA novel before. I first came to know about this movie when I watched Hansel & Gretel few weeks ago, and they played the trailer before H&G. My first thought was: so this is something like last year’s Dark Shadows? And then I googled the movie and I realized: oh no, this is the reverse gender of Twilight, shamelessly rip off the same formula that brings Twilight to the utmost success: Two young lovers, one ordinary human being & the other not-so-ordinary, and their love-you-but-can’t-be-with-you torturous love story.

(2) I watched this movie back-to-back with “Jack the Giant Slayer”, and now realize they’re actually not much different: it’s the story of two young lovers who could not be together because of their different background. Just that “Jack” has better looking leads.

(3) Gladly announcing this good news: Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich are 10 times better than Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson. At least Englert can do more than just biting her lips and Ehrenreich can… well, it’s not so hard to be better than those two Twilighters (three, if you count Taylor Lautner) so I’ll leave it at that.

(4) The supporting actors and actresses are actually very good. Jeremy Irons & Viola Davis are very good in their limited roles. And Emma Thompson, well, I shall dedicate one whole point to her…

(5) Don’t you just love Emma Thompson? How can you not be? She’s lovely in every role. In this movie, she’s the mother of Ehrenreich’s best friend possessed by the evil. She’s both hilarious and scary (if that is even possible), and she rocks an American accent. That confrontation scene with Jeremy Irons is just great.

(6) I often mix up Rose Byrne & Emmy Rossum. I can’t explain why, because it doesn’t make sense at all but it happened. My point here is: remember how lovely when Rose Byrne became the bitch in Bridemaids? Same here, Emmy Rossum really made an impact as the evil and bitchy cousin.

(7) I spent some time trying to figure out why the actor playing the above-mentioned best friend, Thomas Mann looks so familiar to me. And I thought he was Michael Angarano. But then I googled him too, and realized: OMG, he is actually that eager young man who wants to be a witch hunter in Hansel & Gretel. I thought I’ve seen him before!

(8) One question: Why is there no mention of the husbands of these casters women, especially the evil one like Sarafine & Genevieve? If they had become evil, who would have married them and impregnate them?

(9) If Jennifer Lawrence can play 16-year-old Katniss in The Hunger Games, I bet she can handle the role of Lena just fine. Now I just wonder how different will the movie be should they cast her as Lena.

(10) Final verdict: 2.5 stars out of 5. Watch it if you like Twilight. It’s not as bad as I expected, at least I didn’t walk out of the movie half way like I did during the first & only Twilight movie I watched.