Written by Cheng Hui Jie

I would really love to keep this review short and sweet but that’s almost impos­si­ble because AVENGERS was just too awesome!

That’s right! MARVEL’S AVENGERS was a huge suc­cess, earn­ing over $1 Billion world­wide and also the title of the FIRST MOVIE EVER to make a 9-digit sum in just 2 weeks after its première!

I must admit that AVENGERS was a movie that I ini­tially thought would turn out bad because of the say­ing, “too many chefs will spoil the soup”, but I was proven wrong. All it needed was a sure-to-succeed recipe that they could fol­low and in this case, the mighty amaz­ing Director Joss Wheden (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was their ulti­mate cookbook.

I’d have to admit that the open­ing sequence for this highly antic­i­pated movie was rather dull but the remark­able flow of the movie sal­vaged it. Thankfully, the ori­gin of each mem­ber was not looked into for this movie that was meant to be a sequel for sev­eral other movies. We were brought right-smack into the mid­dle of a sit­u­a­tion and all the char­ac­ters were intro­duced with just the right amount of infor­ma­tion for first com­ers to under­stand it and for long-time fans to not find it too repetitive.

It started off with the usual cheesy “galac­tic scene” where aliens are putting earth­lings down but cooler, with the pres­ence of an immor­tal who is also a super vil­lain with rav­ish­ing looks– Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Planning to retrieve their pow­er­ful glow­ing cube known as tesser­act from Earth, Loki paid a visit to S.H.I.E.L.D with a grand entrance nonethe­less. That was where every­thing started to hap­pen really quickly after the cau­tiously cal­cu­la­tive Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) called for the AVENGERS to be assem­bled in the nick of time (no pun intended) to save the world together.

Another rea­son why I loved this movie is because Director Joss Wheden clev­erly addressed each and every sin­gle superhero’s ego and per­son­al­ity into the film using spe­cific scenes of them fight­ing each other. Among them was the long awaited fight between Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans). The lines were gen­uinely epic and the cast did a fan­tas­tic job in their por­trayal of their roles. The flow of the film was per­fect, the sequences were great and there was almost no dead time through­out the whole film.

Bringing your atten­tion back to our fab­u­lous cast, a char­ac­ter you need to look out for would be the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). This is prob­a­bly one of the best on-screen Hulk per­for­mance and I really liked how Joss Wheden man­aged to divert our focus from one char­ac­ter to another, espe­cially with the pres­ence of a char­ac­ter that have always been in the spot­light through­out the whole film, like Hulk. I was never once a Hulk fan but I’d have to admit that Bruce Banner stole the show with his green bum, no wait, it’s Mark Ruffalo’s notice­able chem­istry with Robert Downey Jr. in their comedic scenes. This just might be your only chance to catch the sexy green giant with ‘anger man­age­ment issues’ work­ing as part of an amaz­ing team.

Another char­ac­ter to look out for would be the noble but bossy Captain America, who also hap­pened to be ridicu­lously cute in his old-fashioned way. Being awak­ened from a nap too long, the cap­tain was still as brave and upright as he was before he was genet­i­cally mod­i­fied. It was no sur­prise for the stub­born and prac­ti­cal cap­tain to be in bad terms with the snarky and snob­bish owner of Stark Industries. Remember when I told you their lines were gen­uinely funny? Check this scene out!

Iron Man told Captain America, “No offense, but I don’t play well with others”

And so the cap­tain posed him a ques­tion,“ Big man and a suit armour, take that away, what are you?”

Being witty and self-obsessed as usual, Tony replied “ Uh… Genius, bil­lion­aire, play­boy, philanthropist?”

Two insanely adorable and pow­er­ful super­heroes bat­tling it out with their words of wis­dom was just too much to resist! My advice? Take note when­ever the self-proclaimed phil­an­thropist (Iron Man) is around, it’s either going to be some cool kick-ass scenes or super duper hilar­i­ous lines com­ing up! Need we say more about the man whom most of us are so famil­iar and in love with?

Of course, we can­not for­get about the almighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his super vil­lain brother, Loki, who pretty much con­tin­ued from where they left off in their last Thor movie. I must say that the duo made a heav­enly cou­ple, look­ing so per­fect as immor­tal broth­ers but sadly, Loki had to play the role of the adopted younger brother who has lived through dis­ap­point­ment in his brother’s shadow. Hiddleston looked more like a high-fashion model than an actor with his exclu­sive super vil­lain out­fit while Hemsworth looked like he could eas­ily close an adver­tise­ment deal for a hair prod­uct with his lus­ciously golden locks.

To bring a whole team of extra­or­di­nary super heroes can be tough but leave it to Nicky Fury to make them set­tle all their dif­fer­ences or should I say, put all their crap away and join forces to kick some ass, in this case, alien asses. It could not have been done with­out the sac­ri­fice of one of his beloved S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, Coulson (played by Clark Gregg), who turned out to be Captain America’s num­ber one fan, or should I say, a HARDCORE FAN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA!!! Who knew Clark Gregg would make such a cute fan boy?!

I per­son­ally felt that Agent Maria Hill (played by How-I-Met-Your-Mother star Cobie Smulders) did not leave much of an impres­sion on me, per­haps because she did not appear much in the movie. Another famous actor who had too lit­tle screen time in the film would be Hawkeye (played by Mission Impossible 5 star Jeremy Renner).

Did I men­tion how Hawkeye and Black Widow’s (Scarlett Johansson) romance was just right for the block­buster movie? It was not too lovey-dovey but there were enough sparks to see their pas­sion for each other in a pro­fes­sional man­ner as top-notch S.H.I.E.L.D agents. In this very much male-dominated team cast, Scarlett Johansson some­how man­aged to cap­ture our atten­tion with her smart and slick fight­ing tech­niques. Apart from her strik­ing resem­blance with the comic book char­ac­ter, Johansson also showed that the Black Widow is not some­one you can mess with.



Despite the absence of my favourite MARVEL charc­ter Wolverine, the movie sur­passed my expec­ta­tions with­out a doubt. Discard the overused unsteady shots from the scene where aliens were tak­ing over Manhattan city plus the overly cheesy open­ing sequence and this movie would be a per­fect ten!

Be sure to catch the AVENGERS in cin­e­mas before it’s too late! It is not every­day that you see a movie receive a 93% rat­ing from Rotten Tomatoes and that is really how MARVEL-lous the film was! On a last note, remem­ber to stay through the credits!

Written by Nishanthini Ganesan

The long-awaited film Dark Shadows was finally released in Singapore on the 10^th of May, 2012. Based on the 1967 American gothic cult series, Dark Shadows, cre­ated by Dan Curtis, this film is another Tim Burton-Johnny Depp col­lab­o­ra­tion, also star­ring Helena Bonham Carter. Sadly though, unlike many oth­ers, Dark Shadows does not do too well.

Many fans of clas­sic Tim Burton films might be unset­tled by the time era the story is set in, the 1970s. It also dif­fers in terms of how the story is told. When Barnabus Collin’s back­story is told at the begin­ning, we assume that he will be the main char­ac­ter, if we had not already from the place­ment of the char­ac­ters in the pro­mo­tional posters, and we believe the story will be told through his eyes. As the movie tran­si­tions to present day how­ever, we begin to watch the plot unfold through the expe­ri­ences of the new gov­erness to the Collins chil­dren, Victoria. When Barnabus Collins gets dug up again, we return to telling the story in an objec­tive point of view through his expe­ri­ences. Victoria also dis­ap­pears for a large part of the remain­der of the film, and dur­ing the climax. 

Barnabus Collins him­self, as a char­ac­ter, is by no means a tragic hero. In fact, I must admit that I didn’t like him much for break­ing Angelique’s heart in the first place. The fail­ure of the main char­ac­ter to draw feel­ings from the audi­ence is one rea­son why the movie as a whole, failed to impress. Why we do not sym­pa­thize enough with Barnabus is due to the fact that we do not see his char­ac­ter respond to the tribu­la­tions he was thrown under by the witch Angelique. We adore him, love him even for his awk­ward­ness, but we fail to under­stand his pain because we are not brought deep enough into his psy­che and that I feel, is the great­est fault in this film. There was no char­ac­ter who went on a jour­ney and found the answer to their trou­bles, or an end­ing to their pain. There was only a vam­pire with a strong set of val­ues that were empha­sized time and time again in the film. It is a noble act to make a film to show­case the impor­tance of a fil­ial piety, but I felt that many ele­ments that should have been present in the film to were miss­ing. Many a time, spo­ken dia­logue took the place of what should have been por­trayed by action instead.

The cli­max of the movie, the fight scene between the Collins and Angelique, was noth­ing more than a con­fus­ing bat­tle of strange crea­tures. There was a strange twist at the end that felt more like a joke thrown in for humor’s sake. Overall, the end­ing failed to pro­duce any sense of Karthasis. The uplift­ing sense of drama and emo­tional spec­ta­cle that we have come to love, and unfor­tu­nately expect, from Tim Burton was present, but it came across on screen as a mere mess. I would even go as far as to say that the sex scene between Angelique and Barnabus pro­cured more excite­ment from the audi­ence that the sup­posed cli­max itself.

There were also sev­eral cre­ative deci­sions made with regard to the sto­ry­line that did not work well with me.

There will be impor­tant infor­ma­tion on the plot of Dark Shadows in the fol­low­ing para­graph and there­fore I advise reader discretion.

I will use the mur­der of Helena Bonham Carter’s char­ac­ter, Dr. Julia Hoffman, by Barnabus Collins as an exam­ple. The mur­der did noth­ing for the plot, besides giv­ing a rea­son for Angelique to hand Barnabus over to the police. Even then, she could have done it as eas­ily with his con­fes­sion regard­ing his killing of the con­struc­tion work­ers. The mur­der of Dr. Hoffman had lit­tle to no effect on the other mem­bers of the Collins fam­ily that I would rather it had never hap­pened at all. That being said, the char­ac­ter of Dr. Hoffman in the film did not come off strongly either. I trust Helena Bonham Carter’s act­ing skills, and there­fore I will not spec­u­late as to the cause, whether it be the script itself, or the por­trayal of the character.

However, it can­not be said that this film isn’t visu­ally stun­ning. It show­cases the clas­sic dark, gloomy, German Expressionist style that many have come to asso­ciate with the mas­ter direc­tor him­self. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy and light­ing were spot on and the scene of Barnabus Collins and Victoria tak­ing a walk by the sea is a per­fect exam­ple of the strange­ness yet pro­pri­ety of Tim Burton’s use of the mobile cam­era in track­ing odd movements.

The cos­tumes, done by acclaimed cos­tume designer Colleen Atwood, must be given spe­cial men­tion to. It would take a long time for an audi­ence mem­ber to for­get the neck­lace Barnabus wore for a large part of the film. However, one could not help but to notice how droopy Angelique’s breasts looked in the famed red dress she wore to the hap­pen­ing, in con­trast to how they looked in the pro­mo­tional posters and in her other ensembles.

The makeup in the film, specif­i­cally on Barnabus Collins, felt care­lessly done to me. We are accus­tomed to see­ing Johnny Depp’s cheeks made hol­low with the use of makeup. It has been done in many Tim Burton films, includ­ing Edward Scissorhands, to give him the skele­tal look that many, specif­i­cally women, have come to love. However the dif­fer­ence between their pres­ence in Edward Scissorhands and Dark Shadows, is how obvi­ous the attempted exag­ger­a­tion of Johnny Depp’s fea­tures appear on screen. Even the use of hair prod­uct on his hair was painfully appar­ent in some shots, mak­ing it look arti­fi­cial and I sim­ply can­not pass this off as a cre­ative decision.

As a Tim Burton fan, it does pain me ter­ri­bly to write this review as Tim Burton is by no means a bad direc­tor, but one must, iron­i­cally, look at the bright side. If Tim Burton goes past the dis­mal Dark Shadows and goes on to make another good film, I feel that it would strengthen his posi­tion as one of the reign­ing direc­tors in Hollywood. Even great direc­tors like Stanley Kubrick had films that were by no means, crit­i­cal suc­cesses. They were by no means proud of them, and nei­ther were their fans. What I will be proud of how­ever, is the tiny legion of Tim Burton fans who will stand by their hero even after watch­ing this film.

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If you have been hid­ing under a Dark Shadow, you may find the trailer to the film here.

Written by Parveen Maghera

For over 70 years, Marvel Studios has undoubt­edly pro­duced and devel­oped its char­ac­ters with great enthu­si­asm and dis­tinc­tive­ness, of which I must say, should take pride and dig­nity of its work and show­cases. With over 5000 char­ac­ters in its library, Marvel has never failed to bring to us a com­plete pack­age of ulti­mate super­heroes, which have made it to the big screens since 1944.

The Avengers super­heroes, in par­tic­u­lar, have exhib­ited their spell-binding per­son­al­i­ties on-screen for decades, some of which have relived the comic series while oth­ers brought in a brand new plot.

Take Captain America for a start. In his first appear­ance as a film char­ac­ter in the 1944 black and white film series, which com­prised of 15 chap­ters worth of 244 min­utes, the world began to antic­i­pate the real action they have always been imag­in­ing through his col­lec­tion of comics. However, the por­trayal of Captain America in the series was a far cry from that. As the audi­ence expected a real life Army Private Steve Rogers, blast­ing through World War II with his mighty physique against the “Axis Agents, 5^th Column Sabateurs and sol­diers from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan”, what they received was a District Attorney Grant Gardner, with a .38 cal­i­bre pistol.

Nevertheless, it received a 6.7 star rat­ing which is indeed, not bad at all. Dirk Purcell, who starred as Captain America, man­aged to pull it off well despite being average-sized. The role brought a whole lot of fame to him; after all, he pio­neered the first visual char­ac­ter of Captain America. Shortly after the com­ple­tion of the film, Purcell died of heart attack, due to the strain of film­ing Captain America, accord­ing to his­to­rian Raymond Stedman.

In 1979 came the tele­vi­sion film ver­sion of Rod Holcomb’s Captain America, played by Red Brown.The story, yet again resem­bled noth­ing from the orig­i­nal comics except for the name Steve Rogers and his American-superhero apparel. Plenty of reviews claimed the film was unex­pect­edly enter­tain­ing, despite receiv­ing a lower rating.

The film pro­gressed with another sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, directed by Ivan Nagy, which adapted the least of the comic plot as well and brought in the equiv­a­lent response from that of the first instalment.

Yet, Captain America did not stop here. In 1990, a new film hit the the­atres, which cred­ited the comics to a decent extent. Albert Pyun’s Captain America had a won­der­ful start, with Matt Salinger (Captain America) putting him­self against the Nazi’s Red Skull in World War II, end­ing up frozen until the 1990s and wak­ing up to a whole new mis­sion of sav­ing the President of America from the Red Skulls once again.

The film received a lower rat­ing from that of the pre­vi­ous films, sup­pos­edly due to the awk­ward and abrupt jump from the past to the present.

It was not till 2011 that another Captain America film was pro­duced, Captain America: The First Avenger, which drew a much greater scale of pos­i­tive responses and of course, what was por­trayed was worth a watch.

Chris Evans, who played Captain America, exem­pli­fied what the real-life comic char­ac­ter ulti­mately was and was cred­itably acclaimed by a large seg­ment of the audi­ence. Joe Johnston man­aged to give his audi­ences what they have always been wait­ing for – a per­fect col­lec­tion of visu­als that made the comics, come to life.

Captain America 2 is due to hit the­atres in 2014.

Iron Man, one of the many admired and adored super­hero after Captain America, made his debut in 2007 as an ani­mated char­ac­ter in The Invincible Iron Man, directed by Patrick Archibald, Jay Oliva and Frank D. Paur (super­vis­ing direc­tor). Mark Worden lent his vocals for Iron Man’s character.

This ani­mated film had the least adap­ta­tion of the comic but it sure did show­case a decent dis­play of effects for an animation.

In 2008, Iron Man: Armored Adventures was released as an ani­mated tele­vi­sion series which is cur­rently at its sec­ond sea­son. Adrian Petriw has been voic­ing for Iron Man since the series began and has worked with direc­tors Philippe Guyenne from 2008 to 2009 and Stephane Juffé from 2009 to present.

Well, it was not until the release of the first live-action film of Iron Man that awed the Marvel audience.

Iron Man the­o­ret­i­cally made his first live-action debut in Jon Favreau’s 2008 film of the same name, Iron Man, and the man behind the mask is none other than the charm­ing and charis­matic Robert Downey Jr.

One of the best adap­ta­tions of the Marvel comics, this film scored a whoop­ing 86.5% of rat­ings on aver­age, with over 250 reviews on mul­ti­ple film sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Creditably acclaimed for its superb spe­cial effects and cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Iron Man ‘mar­velized’ our comic char­ac­ters and made them more believ­able. A per­fect super­hero adven­ture, I’d say.

Following the huge suc­cess of the first instal­ment, it is not to our sur­prise that a sec­ond instal­ment of Iron Man made its way to the big screens within two years. Favreau pro­duced yet another fan­tas­tic super­hero film, Iron Man 2, with Downey liv­ing up to his title through another Marvel adven­ture. Of course it couldn’t have been as great as how Iron man was seen pre­vi­ously but with a sequel as such, com­pris­ing of an action-packed, effects-laden cli­max, Iron Man 2 main­tained the image and iden­tity of what a Marvel movie can ever portray.

Accompanying its huge suc­cess at the box office, the film won the Hollywood Film Award for the best Visual Effects of the year as well as the People’s Choice Award for Best Action Movie. Apart from that, Iron Man 2 was also nom­i­nated for sev­eral other awards such as Best Special Effects at the 37^th Saturn Awards and Favourite Action Star (Robert Downey Jr.) at the People’s Choice Awards.

Iron Man is still short of one sequel to com­plete the tril­ogy as planned with Downey still uphold­ing the title of the film. However, it would be Shane Black this time direct­ing the third instal­ment, which is due mid 2013.

Hulk, like Captain America, was first seen on screen in two stand-alone movies, The Incredible Hulk and The Return of the Incredible Hulk (also known as The Incredible Hulk: Death in the Family), in 1977.

These films were directed by Kenneth Johnson and Alan J. Levi, respec­tively. They were then re-edited into one-hour episodes to fit into the tele­vi­sion series of the name The Incredible Hulk, which was aired in 1978 onwards, expand­ing to five sea­sons over the period of five years with a team of 17 direc­tors.

After which, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno reprised their roles from the pre­vi­ous TV series in three tele­vi­sion movies: The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988); The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989); The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990). All of which received accept­able audi­ence responses and aver­age rat­ings, which was not of a bad start after all.

In 2003, a new Hulk movie emerged in the cin­e­mas with Eric Bana tak­ing on the role of the incred­i­ble Hulk.

Although Ang Lee’s Hulk received aver­age rat­ings, view­ers were pretty sat­is­fied with what was por­trayed, with some claim­ing to be the best adap­ta­tion of the comics so far with its bril­liant cin­e­matog­ra­phy, art direc­tion and spe­cial effects.

In 2008, another Hulk film landed in the the­atres. Louis Leterrier directed the film and Edward Nortan was brought in as our new green super­hero. The Incredible Hulk (2008) seemed to be more suc­cess­ful than the films before with an above aver­age rat­ing of 7.

This film seemed to be a mix­ture of what was shown in the pre­vi­ous films, more of which derived from the Ultimate Universe. It was well sought after, com­pared to the 2003 release.

In 2009, an ani­mated film was released, called Hulk Vs., in which Thor and Wolverine made their appear­ances as well. The film was a com­bi­na­tion of Hulk vs Thor, directed by Sam Liu, and Hulk vs Wolverine, directed by Frank Paur, neatly put together to bring to us a com­plete pack­age of mul­ti­ple super­hero action, which was indeed, worth a watch. Fred Tatasciore lent his vocal tal­ents to Hulk, Steve Blum’s to Wolverine and Matthew Wolf’s to Thor.

A year later, another ani­mated film was released, Planet Hulk which unfor­tu­nately did not gar­ner as much pop­u­lar­ity under Sam Liu’s direc­tion, as com­pared to the pre­vi­ous film. (Rick D. Wasserman voiced for Hulk.)

Mixed reviews revealed the film being one of the best Hulk ani­ma­tion movies while some claimed the film could have done more.

Thor made his first debut as an ani­mated char­ac­ter in Hulk Vs. and in 2011, he reap­peared in another ani­mated film directed by Sam Liu, Thor: Tales Of Asgard, which was Marvel Animation’s eighth film in a series of its ani­mated films. Matthew Wolf voiced for Thor once again, in this film along­side Loki, voiced by Rick Gomez.

The ani­ma­tion seemed to be a kid’s film, which many Marvel fans in gen­eral may not enjoy since the char­ac­ters were depicted merely in their younger years.

Thor, then appeared in a live-action move in the same year. With Kenneth Branagh’s excel­lent direc­tion, Thor (2011) made big money at the box office and Chris Hemsworth nailed the first live appear­ance of Thor on the big screen.

Although the sto­ry­line was appeal­ing to sev­eral audi­ences, some claimed the film had very lit­tle to excite. Nevertheless, Thor 2011 won the awards for Best Male Newcomer (Tom Hiddleston – Loki) and Best Science Fiction/Fantasy at the Empire Awards 2012.

No doubt, with the great suc­cess this film achieved, a new instal­ment will be hit­ting the the­atres in 2013.

Black Widow, one of Marvel’s sex­i­est and stun­ning female super­hero may not have had any solo movies of her own but her por­trayal in her sup­port­ing roles in a num­ber of films was, nev­er­the­less, a worth­while watch. Of course, her con­fi­dent and sexy demeanour in her roles exem­pli­fied what a female Marvel super­hero could pos­si­bly be.

In 2006, Black Widow appeared in the first ani­ma­tion edi­tion of the Ultimate Avengers, which also starred the other Marvel super­heroes like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and Nick Fury to name a few. She was voiced by Olivia d’Abo.

This film was claimed to be a com­bi­na­tion of the sto­ries from the Ultimates and the old school Avengers. Brilliant story, action and sus­pense, the film was one com­plete pack of ‘Marvel-ous’ enter­tain­ment for super­hero enthu­si­asts. In the same year, the sec­ond edi­tion was released, Ultimate Avengers II which brought it almost the same response as the pre­vi­ous film.

Black Widow made her first live-action appear­ance in Iron Man 2 (2009), as an under­cover spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, it was impos­si­ble not to notice the sen­sual red-haired Scarlett Johansson in her seduc­tively armoured suit.

In 2010, Black Widow appeared in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, an ani­mated TV series in five episodes so far, voiced by Vanessa Marshall. The film also com­prised of the many other Avengers super­heroes as well, such as Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye.

The series, por­tray­ing the old and new Marvel uni­verse as one, is on its sec­ond sea­son and has so far been rock­ing the TV sets in every home!

And there is good news! Black Widow gained much pop­u­lar­ity from most of her films, push­ing pro­duc­ers into the idea of a solo film for The Black Widow although no details of the film’s release has been confirmed.

Hawkeye appeared in a 1966 ani­mated TV series enti­tled The Marvel Super Heroes, which included yet again our promi­nent super­heroes: Captain America, Hulk, Thor and Iron Man, to name a few.

In 2008, Hawkeye appeared Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, an ani­ma­tion film which also starred Iron Man, Thor and Hulk. The film had the least to do with the comics but a much inter­est­ing sto­ry­line, keep­ing the younger audi­ence enter­tained most of the time.

After appear­ing in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Hawkeye appeared in Thor’s live-action movie in 2011 in a cameo role as a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. which was por­trayed by Jeremy Renner.

Loki also appeared in The Marvel Superheroes, one of the minor roles equiv­a­lent to Hawkeye’s. After which he also appeared in the Hulk Vs. Thor por­tion of the full Hulk Vs. ani­mated film in 2009. In 2011, Loki made his appear­ance in Thor: Tales of the Asgard along­side Thor.

Nick Fury appeared first in his solo film, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998), starred by David Hasselhoff. Despite the fact that the film received below aver­age rat­ings, it was an accept­able film throughout.

Much of the excite­ment derived from its sub-characters, leav­ing Nick over­looked sev­eral times. It could have been bet­ter, as sup­posed. Nick reap­peared in Iron Man’s first instal­ment of the tril­ogy in 2008. This time, he was por­trayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel con­tin­ued to star for Nick in the sec­ond Iron Man instal­ment in 2010 as well as Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011.

Nevertheless, Nick could get another chance to shine on screen as news of a Nick Fury film have been reported. The film is still short of a con­firmed release date.

Very well, our Avenger super­heroes have won­drously por­trayed them­selves on-screen for many years and will never stop sur­pris­ing us as new films emerge as the years go by. Kudos to Marvel Studious for bring­ing to us an amaz­ing array of kick-ass films. We will never be tired of its ever-lasting enthu­si­asm for our mighty superheroes!

The Avengers 2012, com­pris­ing of all the super­heroes here, is cur­rently being screened in the cin­e­mas. Check out our Avengers review!

Written by Sangitha Raman

The genre of this movie is drama, hor­ror and thriller and it comes with a rat­ing of PG-13. This movie caught me by sur­prise because I was clue­less that it was a hor­ror movie until it started! Based on the looks of the movie poster I ini­tially got the idea that it was just another thriller movie. Though the movie was not espe­cially scary there were some scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Daniel Radcliffe has grown out of his highly famed “Harry Potter” char­ac­ter and plays the lead role as a young lawyer and a matured father. He trav­els to a remote vil­lage where he dis­cov­ers the venge­ful ghost of a scorned woman is ter­ror­iz­ing the locals. Will he be able to solve the mys­tery and stop the woman in black? You will have to watch the movie to find out for yourself.

But over­all I felt this movie had dif­fer­ent style than the usual “hor­ror” movies, which often gets lost in all the blood and gore. I am glad that finally there is a movie with a dif­fer­ent kind angle to hor­ror. But the movie was slightly dis­ap­point­ing as I expected more scenes to scare the hell out of the audi­ence but the peak hor­ror scenes always died off with no excite­ment. Despite all that jus­tice was made to the old-fashioned 1907 set­ting the movie adapted right from the haunted man­sion to the cast’s wardrobe choices. The end­ing has to be my per­sonal favorite; it had a spe­cial twist touch to the movie.

Directed by James Watkins; writ­ten by Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Susan Hill; direc­tor of pho­tog­ra­phy, Tim Maurice-Jones; edited by Jon Harris; music by Marco Beltrami; pro­duc­tion design by Kave Quinn; cos­tumes by Keith Madden; pro­duced by Richard Jackson, Simon Oakes and Brian Oliver; released by CBS Films.

Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe (Arthur Kipps), Ciaran Hinds (Samuel Daily), Janet McTeer (Mrs. Daily), Shaun Dooley (Fisher) and Liz White (Jennet Humfrye).

Rating: 3/5

Written by Beatrice Decruz

“Falling is the best part.” ~ FDR Foster, “This Means War”

You may either fall for this light-hearted roman­tic com­edy or think that it falls short of expectations.

Directed by McG, the movie is a love tri­an­gle and an under­cover spy story that revolves around 2 CIA part­ners and life-long best friends FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Henson (Tom Hardy), who have set their eyes on Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon), and they enter a war of love, try­ing to tug at her heart­strings. Ambitious career woman Lauren, finds her­self torn between the suave American, blue-eyed FDR and the sweet, British gen­tle­man Tuck, and to decide on the right man, she dates the gen­tle­men simul­ta­ne­ously. From hav­ing fun at a paint­ball shoot­ing arena with Tuck, to an extrav­a­gant gift paint­ing of Lauren’s favorite artist from FDR, your funny bone will be tick­led and the hearts of girls will melt as the agents dis­play their car­ing and also tough side while they take out the bad guys. However, power in author­i­ties and pri­vacy are breached as the agents make use of CIA resources to spy on each oth­ers’ advances towards Lauren.

Rated PG-13, this movie may seem to be a sim­ple action and roman­tic com­edy but the under­ly­ing val­ues por­trayed made me sit up straight in my chair.
Supposedly as best bud­dies, FDR and Tuck made a gentlemen’s agree­ment that,

1. They will def­i­nitely not let this rivalry for Lauren’s heart; get in the way of their friendship.

2. No phys­i­cal con­tact with Lauren until she has made up her mind.

3. No spy­ing on each other and to have trust in their friendship.

But this agree­ment was for­gone when one could not bear the intense curios­ity while the other is out with Lauren, and both stepped in by plant­ing bugs, and deploy­ing sur­veil­lance teams, claim­ing that the sit­u­a­tion called for a red alert. Does this mean that all that “I’ve got your back cov­ered” and “I’ll take a bul­let for you” talk gets thrown out of the win­dow the moment a woman comes into the pic­ture? It’s equiv­a­lent to say­ing that you can’t even trust your best friend. Well, at least where a woman is con­cerned… And where does this leave us? In a con­stant state of wari­ness and fear.
On the other hand, there’s also the breach of pri­vacy and the mis­use of author­ity. With power comes respon­si­bil­ity. These two men, unlike when out on a CIA assigned mis­sion, acted like inse­cure teenagers due to the lack of trust in each other. To sat­isfy their curios­ity, they crossed bound­aries by invad­ing Lauren’s pri­vacy with­out her knowl­edge. Isn’t it a won­der that they weren’t kicked out of CIA after vio­la­tion of protocol?

Sure, Lauren had to go on dates with the guys to know them bet­ter and to help in her decision-making. However, when her close friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), sug­gested that Lauren sleeps with them and the best in bed should be her ulti­mate choice, it got me wor­ry­ing about the impact it may have on teens. Comparing the open cul­ture in America to Singapore’s con­ser­v­a­tive but fast-learning soci­ety, teens may start to think and even­tu­ally con­sider that hav­ing sex is part of dat­ing and it can help to decide whether the per­son is right for you. With voyeuris­tic under­tones injected for humor, I also cringe at the thought that teens may actu­ally start cre­at­ing a men­tal list of what-to-do and what-to-say on a date, another wor­ri­some thought when I think about my future dat­ing prospects…

To top it all, as Lauren frets over which guy to pick, FDR and Tuck can be seen punch­ing each other’s faces in. And after releas­ing their anger in this phys­i­cal com­bat, slight ten­sion is released and they worked together to save Lauren from the evil clutches of the neme­sis. The ques­tion I want to raise is whether it is nec­es­sary to beat the life out of each other to release ten­sion? Isn’t it a sub­tle impli­ca­tion that vio­lence can be a solu­tion? Action sure seems to speak louder than words since the agents could only have a decent con­ver­sa­tion after the fight.

Although it was nei­ther a nail-biting nor heart-gripping movie that will have you on the edge of your chair, nonethe­less, “This Means War” makes as good frothy enter­tain­ment for those on a date and can even help one get over the stress and wor­ries of a day if, you take every­thing on the surface.

Written by Parveen Maghera

The last day of the third annual Singapore Short Film Awards show­cased a large col­lec­tion of films with its own vari­ety as it deliv­ered the best of the films and the worst.


Triple X

Triple X depicts a man’s search for cer­tain spe­cial­ity titles in a DVD store. With decent cin­e­matog­ra­phy and story, Triple X was a rel­a­tively sat­is­fy­ing start to the day’s screening.

Someday My Prince Will Come

A non-dialogue film of 5 min­utes, Someday My Prince Will Come revolves around just dolls as they empha­sise on the fact that ‘Good things come to those who wait.’

An inter­est­ing film­mak­ing tech­nique, though it may be dif­fi­cult to appre­hend at the start, the film was a mar­vel­lous attempt in terms of its originality.

Tape/Record

The film is about a girl who is immersed in a video footage depict­ing her own per­fect life, which in the end turned out to be a schiz­o­phrenic teenager entan­gled between her imag­i­na­tion and real­ity. The story was not extra­or­di­nary but nev­er­the­less, the title and the film’s edit­ing com­pli­mented each other.

Eagles

A small trib­ute to the skaters out there, Eagles is a doc­u­men­tary entail­ing the pride and joy of being a skater.

Though it lacked that cer­tain aspect of turn­ing this doc­u­men­tary into a more inter­est­ing watch, what was dis­played was pretty much enter­tain­ing to the eyes and yes, the intent of the film­maker is achieved

Threads

A heart-warming story of a mother and her daugh­ter, Threads is one of those films filled with emo­tions and solemn.

No doubt, the pur­pose of the film was vis­i­ble and bril­liantly ful­filled, as the intent of the film­maker was achieved. The story was a unique take on rela­tion­ships but the intent is com­mon. Think about the many other films of the same genre hav­ing a sim­i­lar pur­pose? It is highly impos­si­ble not to name a few.

What About Farquar?

What about Farquar is a short doc­u­men­tary on how the first man on colo­nial Singapore of the past was not given proper recog­ni­tion in the present.

It made total sense of such a film where his­tory is con­cerned but what was por­trayed was not con­vinc­ing enough nor did it make sense at cer­tain areas for it to be good enough for a film. There were some tinge of humour here and there but the actual intent was not clearly shown.

The Thief and The Wise Man

A mean­ing­ful approach towards empha­sis­ing the beliefs of Islam, The Thief and The Wise Man is a reflec­tion of the wise words of the Koran, under­lin­ing the fac­tor of a wise human in life.

Notably a film from which one can gain some Islamic val­ues, the film man­aged to cap­ti­vate the audi­ence atten­tion as they were set to think whether the male lead would intend to do what he intended to or back out in the name of Allah. The art direc­tion in this film was appro­pri­ate enough till an unim­pres­sive sto­ry­book cover was shown. It, unfor­tunetly, reflected the lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism from the art director.

What’s Your Choice

This is a film of a crip­pled man as he strives to earn a liv­ing through dis­trib­ut­ing pam­phlets in Orchard.

Interesting edit­ing tech­niques were dis­played in the film though it may look cheesy to some. Nevertheless, the intent of the film­maker was obvi­ous as he makes an effort to voice for those who feel degraded or use­less because of their disabilities.

Twelve Noon

Something dif­fer­ent I have watched so far, Twelve Noon explodes the moment on just one sim­ple story and character.

Impressively thought, with appro­pri­ate cin­e­matog­ra­phy and bril­liant edit­ing, Twelve Noon was indeed a film of its kind where every character’s view was por­trayed effec­tively dur­ing the same period of time where the event is occur­ring. Great think­ing by the direc­tor, indeed.

Underwater

A music video of a fish trapped in a girl’s body, Underwater is a refresh­ing expe­ri­ence from the whole event so far as this was the only music video depict­ing a story.

Excellent art direc­tion in this field, topped with bril­liant cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Underwater man­aged to cap­ture most of the audi­ence atten­tion and of course, the music did its fair share.

Vinyl

An inter­est­ing doc­u­men­tary on the choices peo­ple make between CDs and vinyl records, Vinyl prob­a­bly went too far and thus, made it seem draggy.

Without doubt, this doc­u­men­tary was cap­ti­vat­ing as not many are in the know of vinyl records in present day nor have been exposed to the opin­ions music lovers have for vinyl, as far as I am con­cerned. What was expected, was expected, what was knowl­edge­able was grasped well, but towards the end when audi­ences felt it was going to be an appro­pri­ate end­ing, the film car­ried on. It became draggy, with too much unnec­es­sary infor­ma­tion at the end. Yet, it was a great attempt at bring­ing back the past to the present.

To The Summer in Our Hearts

This film is a mem­o­rable refresher of the care­free days when play­ing in the play­ground was every child’s daily routine.

With dif­fer­ent shots of the play­ground at dif­fer­ent angles plus a few voiceovers of the locals as they share their thoughts on their child­hood days, To The Summer In Our Hearts seemed a decent attempt in reliv­ing the past in the present. Though this doc­u­men­tary was only scratch­ing the sur­face, what was shown was pretty relatable.

Big Bio

A cre­ative attempt on Claymation, Big Bio was one of the inter­est­ing yet unique films of the night. Although it was dif­fi­cult to under­stand what the film was por­tray­ing, it was a beau­ti­fully artis­tic dis­play of thoughts, ideas and imag­i­na­tion through the eyes of a futur­is­tic scientist.

Ubin

A short doc­u­men­tary por­tray­ing the cur­rent state of Ubin, this film is a form of real­i­sa­tion for all of us as we see the nat­ural land­scape of Ubin being threat­ened by the acts of modernisation.

With visu­als of the Ubin land­scape expos­ing its cur­rent appalling state and shots of the natives in between, this film could pass for any doc­u­men­tary chan­nel if it went more in depth into the cul­tural, aes­thetic and his­tor­i­cal aspects of the island.

Nevertheless, the intent of the film­maker was obvi­ous and it was indeed a great attempt to kick start a thought like this.

The Wedding Avenger

As a bride attempts to escape her post wed­ding com­mit­ments, she brings her­self to play an arcade game revolv­ing around the doubts in her heart.

With appro­pri­ate use of after effects, topped with well-suited art direc­tion, this film may have achieved its pur­pose, the ulti­mate intent of the film­maker. However, it seemed a lit­tle vague at some areas but nev­er­the­less, it was an enter­tain­ing film and audi­ences had a good few laughs at cer­tain points of the film.

When I Grow Up

A com­pi­la­tion of footages by a mother of her two year old baby boy, When I Grow Up made this film a point­less screen­ing that evening.

Of course, her baby was adorable, which kept the audi­ences enthralled and no doubt the footages did link to the title, it unfor­tu­nately made no sense for the film to be screened at such an event. Nevertheless, I see great poten­tial for the young star in the act­ing indus­try in the future.

Warmth on a Liang Day

A short doc­u­men­tary of an ice cream seller uncle ‘Liang’, this is one of those films enlight­en­ing audi­ences on the unseen Singapore.

Ice cream sell­ers have spread them­selves coun­try­wide sur­viv­ing on their bite-sized earn­ings each day as they strive for a joy-filled life. Liang, in this film, posi­tions his ice cream shop at dif­fer­ent parts of Singapore each day, is unfor­tu­nately a vic­tim of unex­pected weath­ers, yet, never leaves his humil­ity for the other Singaporeans who are, in one way or another, in the same boat as him.

Neatly put in place for a doc­u­men­tary as such, with ordi­nary cin­e­matog­ra­phy and direc­tion, Warmth on a Liang Day is an eye opener for those who think Singapore is a land of the riches.

Zuo Kang Lang

A film expos­ing the bor­ing worka­holic life of an aver­age Singaporean, this film itself turned out to be a bore.

With a count­less num­ber of repeated scenes of the same loca­tions with the same direc­tion, it made the film rather dry and point­less. Moreover, with no back­ground music or sounds for almost the whole film, leav­ing the first and last 5 min­utes of the film, ques­tioned the pur­pose of the film. Was it inten­tional or was it a tech­ni­cal glitch?

Xiang Yen

A mother and daugh­ter smoke away as they con­verse in an unlikely con­ver­sa­tion of the late husband/father’s smok­ing habit.

Xiang Yen’s story was based on the dia­logues of the two females, mak­ing it, though pur­pose­ful, lack in its cred­i­bil­ity. This would have been achieved if a few shots of the husband/father were shown, either smok­ing or lying in his deathbed.

All in all, great work in terms of cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion, espe­cially the last shot of the cig­a­rette burn­ing on the ashtray.

Bandh

A film of the bond between a motor­cy­cle and its owner, Bandh is an intrigu­ing film, espe­cially for first time watchers.

Bandh dis­played great cin­e­matog­ra­phy from the motorcycle’s angle itself and it made it seem less obvi­ous that the story was told from the motorcycle’s point of view. Interesting story, yet sim­ple with a pur­pose, Bandh was a pretty tit­il­lat­ing watch.

Redline

A film about rac­ing, blood, gam­bling, betrayal and hon­our, Redline could have done bet­ter if it was told in more than 19 min­utes. The film had a thrilling story, with an inter­est­ing plot and not for­get­ting the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion espe­cially when the main sub­jects of the frames were car(s). Brilliantly writ­ten but it felt a lit­tle rushed, espe­cially when the cli­max unfolded. The sto­ry­line could have been elab­o­rated on, keep­ing the sus­pense hang­ing and thus mak­ing the film more intrigu­ing. Nevertheless, what was shown in the 19-minute film was worth a praise.

This Is Love

A short ded­i­ca­tion from a son to his grand­fa­ther as he shows his insep­a­ra­ble rela­tion­ship on screen, This Is Love was, as a mat­ter of fact, a typ­i­cal fam­ily love film.

However, the film­maker is only 7 years old and for a young boy like him direct­ing the film and the way the sequence of events was put in place, I must say, it was an impres­sive start.

Two Fingers Imitating Legs Walking

This 9 minute long film depicted a man’s love life, from the day it bloomed till it started to wilt. Told in a nar­ra­tive for­mat, Two Fingers Imitating Legs Walking seemed pretty much of a blog­ger film­ing his own love life out of his own blog.

The cin­e­matog­ra­phy was unusual of course, not like any other films shown, but then again, the story line lacked its depth, which could have been improved on to make the entire film worth watching.

3 Days Grace

3 Days Grace is an inspir­ing story on a father and son rela­tion­ship once again, as the son takes care of his elderly father before shift­ing him into a Home. Well-written and a lit­tle dif­fer­ent from every other father and son short film seen so far, this film was a pretty inter­est­ing watch.

Yet again, as far as what I have seen, father and son rela­tion­ships have taken up most of the film sto­ries, and with that is a sad, emo­tional catch. Let’s start think­ing beyond this.

64

This film is about a boy who is an excel­lent chess player, or he think he is.

The story line seemed to entan­gle my thoughts, as I was unsure of what was really going on but what awed me was the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion dis­played. There was this feel­ing of sus­pense and mys­tery wait­ing to be unfolded and this was suc­cess­fully por­trayed using proper shots, sequences and appro­pri­ate usage of props and cos­tumes. The light­ing, as a mat­ter of fact, assisted in cre­at­ing the desired ambi­ence as well.

Hunting Tale

Hunting Tale was a film that was dif­fi­cult to appre­hend from the start. From the shot of a young girl with a soft toy to a grown up girl with tat­toos, and off she goes to a young lady’s house where, if I’m not mis­taken, they talk about her father. If shots of the girl’s par­ents were included, the film could have made more sense to the audience.

Wherever You Will Be

A man looks back into his child­hood days for the one he lost years back; Wherever You Will Be seemed an ordi­nary film with an ordi­nary story yet again. The story, in my opin­ion, could have devel­oped even fur­ther to make it more real­is­tic and of course, the pro­nun­ci­a­tion of the lan­guage used should be accu­rate, as some­one from the audi­ence had pointed out.

Chasing Sunset

Chasing Sunset depicts a girl’s strug­gle as she tries to main­tain a long dis­tance relationship.

Interesting cin­e­matog­ra­phy dis­played and beau­ti­ful art direc­tion at cer­tain areas; Chasing Sunset would have been more believ­able if not for the end­ing shown. From the begin­ning of the film, there was a sense of direc­tion and it made the film look good in a way, although it may not be the best story. However, the end­ing was a lit­tle vague or if it was the intent of the film­maker to leave it vague, then prob­a­bly there should be an actual rea­son behind it. However, how it seems to be is pretty unex­pected and the audi­ences could have expected a more log­i­cal end to it.

Roommates

By far the most enter­tain­ing film of the day, Roommates was a per­fect end­ing to the night’s and the week’s screening.

Amazingly writ­ten, Roommates was a film I have never had imag­ined to come across before. Complimenting on the bril­liant work on the cin­e­matog­ra­phy and art direc­tion in par­tic­u­lar, this film is worth a thou­sand praises. Every point in this film was filled with an eerie sus­pense and audi­ence were forced to think some­thing is def­i­nitely going to scare them, well for me at least.

The art direc­tion was per­fect and what was shown was con­vinc­ing and the story seemed orig­i­nal as well. Great job, I’d say.

Written by Nishanthini Ganesan

Day 6 of the Singapore Short Film Awards took place on a rainy Saturday and played host to the largest num­ber of films screened in a day thus far. As usual, some dis­ap­pointed, but there were more than a few that left the audi­ence in awe.

My Name is Sam

A touch­ing film in a Singaporean con­text about a boy who is being taken care by his grand­mother who does not want him, My Name is Sam was well shot and pre­sented on screen.

However, it can be said that My Name is Sam did not come across as strongly as a film with its sto­ry­line and sub­ject mat­ter had the poten­tial to.

Kopi Old Times

Kopi Old Times is a well-intentioned doc­u­men­tary about the cof­feeshops in Singapore. It addresses the age old ques­tion that Singaporeans are faced with on a daily basis: Tradition or Modernity?

In a land where change is immi­nent, noth­ing rep­re­sents our past as effec­tively as a sim­ple cup of cof­fee enjoyed at a hawker cen­tre does. The most obvi­ous prob­lem with this film’s cin­e­matog­ra­phy is there being far too many cam­era move­ments dur­ing the inter­views, which audi­ence mem­bers found unnecessary. The nar­ra­tion in this film had no obvi­ous slip-ups and pro­vided good com­pany to the visu­als on screen. Kopi Old Times, to say the least, is a film that held great meaning.

The Last Train

A doc­u­men­tary about the Tnjong Pagar Railway Station on it’s final days of oper­a­tion, told through inter­views with the peo­ple who have­have lived and worked there.

The doc­u­men­tary was com­phre­hen­sive, touch­ing on the prob­lems aris­ing from the clo­sure of the rail­way and cap­tur­ing the ambi­ence of the place. However it did drag at some points. The Last Train included footage of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station’s last day of oper­a­tion which I found to make it par­tic­u­larly valu­able, not just as a film but as a National Archive.

The Last Train is a film that summed up a small part of Singapore’s his­tory, and though it can­not be said that this film is a mas­ter­piece, visu­ally, it has cap­tured a part of Singapore beautifully.

Lost in Paradise

Featuring stun­ning cut­aways accom­pa­nied by the thoughts of one man as he goes through a strug­gle faced by all artists, Lost in Paradise is a tale of one’s expec­ta­tions ver­sus his reality.

With a script that was both believ­able and authen­tic to its con­text, Lost in Paradise set itself apart from many other films with it’s set­ting, in New York City. The film had a sto­ry­line that was relat­able to any­one who has sought out to pur­sue his or her dreams. Lost in Paradise was beau­ti­fully shot, with the scenes on the cliff being both breath­tak­ing and sym­bolic, to show the author’s lone­li­ness as he gives up every­thing for his art. 

Mannequeins

Mannaquins is a psy­chadelic music video, one of the few music videos to be screened at the Singapore Short Films Award screenings.

Dark and depress­ing, Mannaquins was visu­ally com­pelling. It was well edited, with a clear con­cept and com­mend­able art direc­tion. However, the film felt like noth­ing more than an expres­sion of rage, and a clas­sic metal music video. One could not help but to won­der if the author of the film felt the need for the story to be relat­able to an audience.

Let Fly

Let Fly is a tale about one boy’s dreams to become a pilot, and his inail­ity to make them come true due to his father want­ing him to carry on the fam­ily busi­ness and his mother hav­ing died in a plane crash.

Depressing sto­ry­line with a lack of kathar­sis aside, Let Fly fea­tured awk­ward act­ing as well as back­ground nar­ra­tion. Let Fly gained my favour with its above aver­age art direc­tion, but lost it with its use of ama­teur sym­bol­ism. The open­ing sequence of this film didn’t have much ot do with the rest of the story either, serv­ing only to show the filmmaker’s abil­ity to pro­cure vin­tage films of aeroplanes.

Let Fly sim­ply is a clas­sic bad Singaporean short film, one that aims to sad­den its audi­ence for no appar­ent rea­son.

Pointework

Pointework is an artis­tic film detail­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties of a long-distance rela­tion­ship, through the eyes of a man and a woman, artists in their own right, as they strug­gle to keep their rela­tion­ship and their art alive.

Though well-shot with beau­ti­ful cin­e­matog­ra­phy and above-average art design, the film itself was poorly con­tructed. It fea­tured a lead female char­ac­ter that the audi­ence found diff­fi­cult to empathise with due to poor act­ing and a lack of dimen­sion to the char­ac­ter. Opposite her is a man who only ever wears his chef uni­form, until the end of the film.

Pointework was con­fus­ing at some points. Towards the end of the film, one could not help but to won­der, what was its point?

Made Up

A film from the vaults of Ngee Ann’s School of Film and Media Studies, Made Up is a tale of beauty and beauty lost.

The film relied heav­ily on sym­bol­ism, with there being no dia­logue at all. The art direc­tion was intri­cately done and com­mend­able as it led to the film being visu­ally com­pelling on screen. If only the the exit sign had been hid­den from view at the begin­ning of this film, Made Up would have been perfect.

Play Pretend

Play Pretend is a flm that touches on metero­sex­u­al­ity in a Singaporean con­text. Well shot, with pow­er­ful act­ing by Nat Ho, Play Pretend addresses the typ­i­cal Singaporean man’s need to be seen as masculine.

The vignette feel to the mem­o­ries helped seper­ate the past from the present and quell any audi­ence con­fu­sion as the film kept switch­ing between times. The film itself was beau­ti­fully shot. Coupled with the con­tro­ver­sial, yet relat­able sto­ry­line, Play Pretend struck a chord with its audience.

One Sunny Morning

One Sunny Morning is a film that touches on the con­cept of homo­sex­u­al­ity. Stunningly shot, One Sunny Morning is a tale of for­bid­den love and the strug­gles of two men as they fight to come to terms with themselves.

This is a film that will bring hope to its audi­ence, and one that rep­re­sents its sub­ject mat­ter well.

Ordinary

Ordinary is a well-intentioned film that is as sim­ple as it is pow­er­ful. The film tells about a day in the life of a toi­let cleaner, a film that every­one in the the­atre could relate to, for we all have seen and met toi­let cleaners.

Well-shot and put together, with believ­able act­ing, Ordinary is a mov­ing film that will inspire the worst of us to do a good deed.

Now Therefore

One of the few music videos to be screened at the 3^rd Singapore Short Film Awards, Now Therefore tells a story about a man escap­ing the world to seek out what he believes in.

Now Therefore fea­tured some amaz­ing shots in scenic loca­tions. It had con­vinc­ing per­for­mances by both the band and the actor. Well-edited and put together with good music and an interesing con­cept, Now Therefore set itself apart from many other angst-driven metal music videos.

Playback

Playback is a clas­sic story of some­one find­ing some­thing after it had been hid­den away for a long time, that trans­ports them back to their past, in par­tic­u­lar, their childhood.

Playback was beau­ti­fully shot and had a con­cept that was short and sim­ple, yet effec­tive. Featuring no dia­logue at all, it told its story through the well-delivered per­for­mances by its actors. Delivering a heart­warm­ing story in a Singaporean con­text, with art direc­tion that served its pur­pose well and made the film believ­able, it is hard to under­stand why Playback was not one of the nom­i­nees for an award.

Qi Qi

It can be said that Qi Qi make lit­tle to no sense. Though the sto­ry­line was clear, the audi­ence sim­ply did not under­stand the point of the film. Some shots lasted for far too long, and the low light­ing , as well as unclear voiceovers made this an uncom­fort­able film to both watch and hear.

Qi Qi fea­tured sym­bol­ism that came across as being too lit­eral. The film itself was draggy. It was impos­si­ble to empathise with the lead female char­ac­ter, for she lacked dimen­sion. As a whole, the film could no be said to be more than one authored by an ama­teur filmmaker.

Project Marionette

Featuring 3D ani­ma­tion that was well-developed, Project Marionette was visu­ally inter­est­ing and com­palling. However, the story over­all failed to be either mov­ing or pow­er­ful. To add insult to injury, the con­cept itself could also hardly be deemed as original.

Birthday cake

Birthday cake is an abstract film con­sist­ing of noth­ing but shots of a birth­day cake and the can­dles perched on top of it.

Though the con­cept was highly intru­ig­ing, Birthday Cake was grainy and suf­fered poor qual­ity on screen. However, this did not take away from the film being inter­est­ing and sym­bolic. Birthday Cake ful­filled its pur­pose as a blank book the audi­ence could fill up with their own con­clu­sions about the film.

The Red Veil

The Red Veil is a Tamil lan­guage film set in India.

The Art Direction in The Red Veil was inter­i­cately done, mak­ing for a visu­ally com­pelling film. Though The Red Veil had a sto­ry­line that could have come across as both mov­ing and pow­er­ful, it sim­ply did not come across as strongly on screen as it could have.

With its stun­ning cin­e­matog­ra­phy, it can be said that the Red Veil looked much bet­ter than it sounded. The dia­logue was deliv­ered awk­wardly, not helped by the fact that most of the character’s were not shown talking.

The Red Veil is a film that had the poten­tial to do well, but which sim­ply didn’t.

Redemption

The text shown at the begin­ning of Redemption stated that it was filmed on an iPhone 4 care. As some­one judg­ing this film, I must say that shoot­ing a film on an iPhone 4 cam­era is noth­ing to be proud about unless the film was well shot, which can­not be said about Redemption.

Poorly edited with far too many effects and tran­si­tions, this film fea­tured a story that was nei­ther prop­erly devel­oped, nor well-intentioned. At the end, all this film did was to high­light the dan­gers of the mentally-ill and stereo­type the mentally-ill as dan­ger­ous. Redemption was highly degrad­ing, mak­ing it a film unfit to be redeemed.

Quiescence

Quiescence is a film about a malay woman and her struggles.

The film was well shot and came across beau­ti­fully on screen. However, both the sto­ry­line and the main char­ac­ter felt one dimen­sional, and as such it was dif­fi­cult for the audi­ence for empathise with this film, or have much to say about it.

Spycat and the Paper Chase

A paper­cut ani­ma­tion, Spycat and the Paper chase was as funny as its visu­als were well-developed.

Though the con­cept couldn’t be said as being entirely orig­i­nal (Villian steals every known item of a spe­cific kind in the world propt­ing Hero to chase him down and take him down), the story and script were both well-developed and convincing.

Remembering Ubin

A well-intentioned film, Remembering Ubin cap­tured the beauty and essence of one of Singapore’s off­shore islands, which now lies forgotton.

The stun­ning time-lapses at the open­ing cred­its were enough to draw the audi­ence into the film, which proved itself to be as mov­ing as it was visu­ally compelling.

The film told the story of the island through the eyes of its inhab­i­tants, peo­ple who have lived and worked there since their youth. Remembering Ubin can be treated as a National Archive. It served its pur­pose, its pur­pose being to remind the young of a land their ances­tors once lived in and that should never be lost to the ages.

Geram

Geram was well-shot with a script that was prop­erly devel­oped and con­vinc­ing. It told the story of an unhappy wife try­ing to mend the gap between her and her hus­band, only to find out that the rea­son she had been search­ing for is entirely trivial.

Meaning, “angry” in malay, Geram was filmed in beau­ti­ful loca­tions, mak­ing for good art direc­tion and a film that was easy on the eyes. It touched a sub­ject close to the hearts of many Singaporeans, the love of soc­cer. A relat­able script with visu­ally inter­est­ing shots, Geram set the stan­dard for a clas­sic, sim­ple yet effec­tive, Singaporean short film.

Steng

Steng is an 8-minute short film fea­tur­ing a never-ending cig­a­rette and the hopes and strug­gles of three young National Service men.

Peppered with a vul­gar­i­ties, Hokkien and English alike, Steng had a script that was both con­vinc­ing and well-developed. The film’s most impor­tant asset was its script in fact, due to the film being mostly dia­logue with lit­tle to no action.

The art direc­tion was well done and on-screen, the night scenes did were both well-lit and free of noise. Many shots how­ever, were out of focus and there were more than a few con­ti­nu­ity errors, specif­i­cally in the length of the cigarette.

The film Remember was not screened due to tech­ni­cal problem.

Strangers

Strangers is a film touch­ing on the topic of les­bian­ism in the con­text of a con­ser­v­a­tive Singaporean home. 

Well-shot, with good qual­ity on screen Strangers fea­tured strong and believ­able act­ing by its cast. The house and the char­ac­ters were con­vinc­ing, partly due to the splen­did art direc­tion. The film showed as much, or prob­a­bly much more than it told, mak­ing for a com­mend­able effort. Strangers also fea­tured a pow­er­ful sub­ject mat­ter that was con­tro­ver­sial, enabling the audi­ence to empathise with the film and its characters.