Trapped at Berkeley

I made a lot of sacrifices to watch Troy: I waited in line for countless hours to get tickets, I waited another three hours to get into Wheeler Auditorium, and I endured the freezing cold for an hour after someone pulled a fire-alarm during the movie. I only made these sacrifices because I believed Troy would be an excellent movie.

I was utterly disappointed.

I won’t say that movie was bad. It wasn’t. It’s just that there were too many factors that turned an excellent story into an average film.

First, the acting was horrible. Brad Pitt’s and Orlando Bloom’s characters didn’t seem real; they both were as mechanical as robots. The acting was so bad that many people in the audience would burst out laughing when Pitt tried to show compassion or when Bloom tried to exhibit confidence. Bloom’s boyish looks just weren’t appropriate.

Secondly, the dialogue was dry and lacking. There was no substance to any of it. The screenwriter should just be shot. There were many crucial instances when the actors had nothing to say; instead of speaking, they would just stare off into the distance. The best example of this was when Achilles’ mother told her son that he would die if he went to Troy. Instead of responding with emotion, Achilles (Pitt) just turned his head towards the sea.

The CGI was sub par. The battle scenes would have been realistic if this movie was filmed 10 years ago. After watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the battles in Troy seemed fake. The camera-work was also bad. It seemed as if the director wanted to compensate for the pitiful battle scenes by constantly moving the camera around. Bad idea.

Finally, the movie was overdrawn. Some scenes just broke the flow of the story. They could have been easily omitted without any effect upon the final movie. At 163 minutes, watching Troy requires a bit of endurance.

I guess the only redeeming quality of the movie was the storyline. I haven’t read Homer’s Iliad in a long time, so I won’t comment on the accuracy of the movie. But, if nothing else, the story was interesting.

My Ticket:

I know I haven’t been posting my normal supply of updates. After studying for countless hours for my organic chemistry midterm and failing miserably, I haven’t been in the mood to post updates. Thankfully, I’m feeling much better now after much inner reflection.

I decided to try escape Berkeley yesterday. I needed an outlet for my disappointment. Since I’m a movie addict, I felt that the best cure would be watching a movie, so I decided to go watch Kill Bill 2.

After going to my American Culture lecture and discussion, I ran down to the BART station and got on a subway train heading towards San Francisco. During the periods when the train traveled above-ground, I was able to watch the city of Berkeley slowly fade into the city of Oakland. These images caused me to feel relief, happiness, some sadness, and that strange feeling you get when you leave home. I was leaving my home, the University of California at Berkeley.

My excursion to San Francisco was the first time I had been there in nearly 5 months; my last visit to San Francisco was to buy Christmas presents. I had been anxious to visit the city; last semester, I went to San Francisco nearly every week. However, I hadn’t planned on visiting under such melancholy circumstances; it was definitely a strange feeling.

I got off at the Powell Street BART station and walked towards the Metreon; I surprised myself by remembering how to get there. At the Metreon, I purchased a ticket for the 4:20 showing of Kill Bill, and, since I was early, decided to kill time by playing Final Fantasy X at the Sony Playstation store. The film ended near 7 PM, and, since there was still light, I headed towards Fisherman’s Wharf to buy some In-N-Out for dinner. I got back to Berkeley just after 9:30.

I crashed and burned on my organic chemistry midterm. I guess the blame falls upon me because I didn’t start studying early enough and because I missed too many lectures. This makes for two chemistry midterms that I’ve done poorly on; each midterm was worth 10% of my overall grade. Since I am really committed to my chemical engineering major, I have to start seeking help, and I must start getting my priorities together.

But, first, I need one happy thing today to rise up my spirits. I’ll probably run over to San Francisco to watch Kill Bill 2 after my ESPM discussion.

It was Easter yesterday, and I forgot to make a post about it. Oh well, better late than never…

This is the first Easter that I spent away from home. It’s strange not getting involved in two easter traditions: coloring eggs and having an Easter egg hunt. Yeah, I know I sound old for those two things, but I have little siblings…

As an aside, it seems that Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is back on top of the charts. And it also seems that Hollywood won’t be remembering The Alamo. Poor Disney, Michael Eisner has got to go.

This is bad. I can’t sleep.

I just finished watching Donnie Darko. It was an interesting movie; the plot was pretty twisted. I’ll be watching it again some time soon.

But now, its 4 AM, and I’m not tired or sleepy. I have a problem. I guess I’ll set my alarm clock for 11 AM and start reading my chemistry textbook.

If you think I mistyped the title of this post, go watch Hackers sometime soon.

I’ve survived an all-nighter + an 8-5 day. However, I have to do physics now. ::sigh:: 3 hours and counting…

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Concentrated HCl burns. Immediately rinse in case of exposure. Cytosine + uracil can be a new way to get high.

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Cigarette smoke contains concentrated amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water, arsenic, formaldehyde, phenol, ammonia, and benzene. It’s an awesome cocktail.

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With the unexpected public release of Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code, I feel relieved to be running Linux.

There was a free sneak preview of the Last Samurai last night on Berkeley campus (Wheeler Auditorium). The showing was packed!

I had thought that I would have to miss the sneak preview. I had failed to obtain tickets, and I was afraid that I had a programming lab due today.

Remarkably, during my C96 seminar, I ran into a chemistry major whom I had met through the Christian Navigators. Apparently, his friend had obtained multiple tickets, and they had a couple leftover, one of which he offered to me. In addition, I realized that there was no programming lab due this Thursday, so I decided to go =)

The movie was great. Although it was not as good as the stereotypical Akira Kurosawa movie, it was still pretty good for an American movie. If I had paid for my ticket, I would not have regretted purchasing it. Go see the movie when it’s officially released tomorrow!

And ugh, it’s raining in Berkeley right now, and I have no umbrella.