Movie review - Oblivion

So, Katrina won 2 complimentary GSC movie tickets where we could choose ANY movie we wanted to watch at the cinema. We chose Oblivion because of Tom Cruise and there wasn't any other movie which intrigued us, here goes!

WARNING : SPOILERS.
Hahaha.

Oblivion was mind-blowing really. According to IMDb it's the best Tom Cruise film since Mission Impossible 3 (2006) which earned $47millions; Oblivion took $71.9 million over its opening weekend.



I'll sum the whole movie up in a word : futuristic.

The movie takes place in 2077 and 60 years ago, which was 2017, human won the war with aliens (a.k.a scavs). Now, 60 years later, these scavs are planning for revenge, where Sally (Melissa Teo) communicates with the effective team, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria/Vika (Andrea Riseborough) on a project to evacuate essential elements; especially water to Tet, where they claim to be a place to sustain human lives. They're in the final weeks and they can return to Titan (where the human beings live because the Earth and moon were destroyed during the war) afterwards.

Victoria.

However, little did Jack know that he is one of the clones made to carry out this project; there are 1000 of them because Jack Harper was the best pilot. The main clone in the movie is known as Tech-49.

Part of Jack's memories haunts him; there's constantly a beautiful girl in his mind. Soon he learns that she's Julia (Olga Kurylenko) as he goes to a wreckage to save survivals from a spaceship - Odyssey. She remains as the only survival as the others were killed by drones. Vika is upset seeing Julia again. Jack is captured by scavs, and the leader Malcolm (Morgan Freeman) requests Jack to reprogram a drone to deliver a nuclear bomb to destroy Tet.

The truth reveals when Jack and Julia went to the observation deck of the partially destroyed Empire State Building. Julia showed Jack the engagement ring he gave to her and they embrace. It infuriates Vika and she decides to report that Jack and her are no longer an effective team. Sally activates a drone to kill Vika and commands Jack and Julia to be an effective team since then and return to Tet, but they flee instead.


Julia and Jack


Pursued by the drones, they were forced to enter radiation zone where they eventually crashed. Jack Harper met Tech-52 and takes his spaceship to return to his "tower" which is completed with clone of Vika.



The Tower where they live in.

Jack reprograms a furious drone and on his way to Tet with Malcolm, not Julia. Unfortunately, the drone is destroyed in chaos; Malcolm and Jack decide to send the bomb to Tet themselves.

Obviously, they were destroyed along with Tet tower.

3 years later, Tech-52 goes back to where Julia stays, as he says "He is me, I am him". Julia and Jack have a child dated back in 2017 but the hibernation in pod inhibited pregnancy so she gave birth as she returned Earth.

It's long and complicated storyline but it was worth the while. Many people dislike it because they don't understand, can't blame them. I was blur at first but that was what kept me awake in the theater to keep watching it. :)


I'll rate this movie 7/10 because it's the first movie I had the urge to write a review on and the story kept me awake the whole time (Well, I feel sleepy watching most of the movies in the theater). Although the plot is twisted and hard to understand, but the details of those futuristic vehicles deserve appreciation. :)

Maniac

One morning, I checked my Twitter as usual to find one of my friends retweeted an article from The Star online, where a woman passed away from saving her daughter. The title left me 'wow', such a noble woman. Later on, I opened my Facebook and learnt that I was my senior's aunt.


He also shared a post from his cousin, declaring a few facts that were twisted in the article.

Now, how much can we trust our news press? These few days, those "ads" are rather defacing. I really hope our country can practise a fair election, before and during the real event. It's rather ugly.

Anyway, back to the topic. The truth is here, written by none other than the sole witness of this cruel act :My mother, my hero.
Where's the humanity in these human beings who go around stabbing anyone like a maniac?

Where's the law? Or is it going to be ignored because...?

I hope the murderers get served what they deserve, be it by laws or karma.

R.I.P aunt Irene, and stay strong Hui Wei.

Make-A-Wish experience

Since I'm awake at such ungodly hour and can't seem to fall back asleep, I shall update this semi-abandoned blog.

Sometime last year when Do-good volunteers website by The Star was launched, I used to search up what is there to help various non-profit organisations but it was more of a freelance thing. They recruit many volunteers and if you turn up on the event day, kudos to you; otherwise, well... Nothing really. There isn't much of appreciation. Over time, many other companies start to post on the website just because they know well enough that volunteers don't have to be paid. I began to Google other non-profit organisations and see if I could find any volunteering information on their website. Make-A-Wish was the first I found and I was interested to help out.

Background information : Make-A-Wish is a non-profit organisation which solely depends on the donations/fund given by the society. They've been trying to apply for tax exemption but got rejected by the government (you know what to do here) so there isn't a company that donates a steady amount every month or so. It's an organisation that grant wishes of any kid who had life-threatening disease, despite their race. In Make-A-Wish, no wish is impossible (unless it's to own firearms or license underage).

Last Saturday I was informed to attend a wish granting training which briefly taught us the phases in granting a wish, and today, I was able to help in the first step; interviewing a child.

It's a task that really needs you to think on your feet because many unforeseen circumstances might occur. Today, one out of three kids we were supposed to interview went back to her home at Kuala Selangor, which we are going to visit her on Wednesday.

We went to Mid Valley to pick up some gifts for them and then headed to Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

To be honest, times like this make me wonder if I really want to become a doctor. As you know, government hospitals aren't fantastic environment to work in. The atmosphere is as depressing as it can get.

Interviewing a child makes me realise how lucky I am; I have everything I need and most importantly, I am healthy. There was a kid whose biggest wish is to receive a tablet and another wishes to go Singapore. It was then I realised I easily got both.

I'm really looking forward to planning the wish! :)

Till then!

Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates because I haven't been too fanatic to take photos of my meals and the things I do, but I shall upload a few at the end of the post to sum up what the past two weeks have been.

Have you ever tried hard to figure out what you really want? I have. And I did not get any answers out of it. However, they usually hit you right in your face when you least expect it.

Now that it's clear; I want a future I've always pictured in my head and nothing less. A future that doesn't revolve around people who don't matter.

Maybe a gap year is doing me good.

Lesson learnt

Below is a short story extracted from one of the Facebook posts I went through last night and I could relate to it :

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Moral of the story:
1. Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy
2. Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend
3. And when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut !

To be honest, I've never fancied anything that has to do with 'efficiency' here in where I live because I've never been treated with total efficiency anyway. Processes are always slow, things ALWAYS get delayed and worst of all, people who work without passion and actually SHOW it to their customers. 

Lately, I've been running all the places just to get my application forms done. Went back to school and college to get my certificates translated and certified; noticing some terrible efficiency they have. I'll roughly outline what happened but I shall not disclosed where and who. 

So I went back to college on Tuesday to get my application forms signed (it required a person of higher authority to 'recommend' you) and certify the translations of the certificates ('cause it's for overseas). I reached college at 10am where I immediately looked for the secretary and she wasn't free. Alright then, I waited for 45 mins while she got her stuff done. That's just to explain to her about the application forms. She then told me the head of school wouldn't be free until 2pm (rough estimation), which in actual case, 4.40pm. Meanwhile, I tried to get my translated certificates certified and the admission staff weren't helpful at all. One of the staff stamped her boss' stamp and signed by the side, saying she had to show the boss blablablablaaaaa and when I came back again, the boss stepped out for lunch and apparently, the boss wanted to hear my explanation. Where was I? Jail? The boss' lunch time was at least 2 hours so I had to wait until 2pm. Alright, that isn't too bad since I'm coming back later anyway. 

Fast forward to 5pm when I came back to college with my boyfriend (whom I troubled a lot during the whole delayed process), head of school already signed the documents. BUT, the BOSS did not. He gave me a lot of excuses to not certify the certificates when his staff already stamped the paper! Funniest thing is that, the boss never showed his face. I wonder

•  Why did the staff stamp in the first place knowing she has to show the boss? 
• Why can't they have more stamps of different people's names on it? What if the boss is on MC? Nothing gets certified then? He is no Prime Minister, I'm sorry to say but business should not revolve around only one person.

• Why wasn't he brave enough to hear my explanation face-to-face? Why did he have to send two staff just to pass my explanation to him? 

Today, I went back to my high school and what surprised me was, everything happened very fast. I only had to ask the teacher to certify it without waiting. She even trusted me with her stamp so I stamped where I needed her signature and she immediately signed for me. Trust really brings people closer. I felt a little like home there. To be frank, I hated school for the endless politics and melodrama. I'm not afraid to say. Who would not get sick and tired of such irrelevant drama in school almost every single day? That was pretty childish and I did not enjoy that part of high school life. Admittedly, I would get a little depressed and my tutors used to talk me out of it. What I've learnt is that; you'd be SO MUCH happier when you stop giving two hoots about people who do not matter in your life. Do not bother if they hate you or whatnot, if they'd talk bad behind your back, it only means you're a few steps ahead of them. Insecurity makes them what they are. I'm pretty happy at the fact that I'm not too reluctant to get my stuff done at the high school if I need to in the future. 

I've always thought college was perfect, but I came across that nothing is perfect. Absolutely nothing (I burst my own bubble too). And the place where you have bad thoughts about it, give it a second chance. :) 

Lastly, I reckon we have to work REALLY hard to improve our efficiency if we want a bright future for our country. We're indeed a few steps behind in this case. 

A wedding

I can't get past the fact that I didn't blog about it, not because I'm that kinda blogger who won't let any good event slide by not publishing it on my blog, but it's simply because Ms Hema is too lovable and her wedding was special. It wasn't a white wedding which I've always dreamt of having, but a really, really traditional one. I shall steal all the photos from her Facebook ('cause I didn't want to bring my camera around Subang Parade later on) and you judge whether it fits my description ;)

All in all, I'm really happy for the couple and honoured to have the chance to attend this wedding.

Post-birthday celebration

You must be thinking why do I have so many birthday celebrations? Well, I'm loved. :D

This is so last Friday but I must blog 'bout it! Because I think it's the first outing where ALL of us made it since a very very long time.

We were at Mid Valley for dinner, I suggested Homemade Fish Head Noodles. Their signature dishes are pretty damn good, but Man Hou didn't like his asam chicken rice. :P

Alright, these are the photos. Enjoy!

Who is dominating the photos? :P 

The monkey I got from them as birthday present! :) 

and this is the cup I won from one of The Bee's surveys. Hookturn BYO coffee cup, which costs about RM68 here in Malaysia. Thanks to The Bee!