This movie is so good because of one element: Robert Downey, Jr who plays as the prodigal billionaire arsenal millionaire playboy Tony Stark. His act fits the indifferent and smooth-fast talking persona of the man who "owns everything.....and nothing". Tony's bravado, indifference, witty words, and higher-than-thou body languages come out of RDJR naturally you would have a hard time figuring out where RDJR ends and Tony Stark begins.

I was captivated when RDJR played that unfortunate loser who becomes a hero for his child-time love in the stylish noir-comedy Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang (2005). He acts so naturally and so captivating, I cannot forget the way he talks and his fast-moving and self-doubt actings there. When I saw his performance in Iron Man, I can not shake thee feeling that I have met an old friend.

And old friend who changes from a loser to a winner, and Iron Man is truly a winner in many aspects. The story flows smoothly, the cast plays perfectly, from the change in Tony Stark's behaviour to ever-changing-chameleon-like CEO nemesis to the voice actor for the AI-with-attitude to the awkwardness of Tony's personal assistant and eternal flirt. The actions are jam-packed and nicely choreographed, the techs are rendered beautifully and believably, and Iron Man himself, when shown, doesn't go all uber-human and stampede everything on his path; weakness and flaws are shown here and there, and that makes the movie more lively and heart-stealing.

and the appearance of the real life Mad Trader, Jim Cramer bashing the fictional stock of Stark Industries really put another layer of perfections in the movie.

If only the final nemesis and the last showdowns are not so typical, the movie would have 5 stars. But 4 stars is already EXCELLENT!

and the appareance of a certain one eye-patched character.....naaah...u need to wath it yourself.

Go watch Iron Man. This is one Marvel movie I heartily recommends!

Oh Man! This MOVIE ROCKS!

No, not because a guy shoots people up or because a hot underage ninja lass cuts people's arms off and have sex later, no, no, no!

This movie rocks cause something invades New York city and a young man is recording everything he sees through a handheld camera, and you see everything FROM THE ROCKING CAMERA POINT OF VIEW!

Huh, how cool is that?

REALLY! REALLY! COOL!

The first person view gives you detailed and in-depth involvements with the psyches and the struggles of the people who are trying to run away from the invader, got caught in the middle of the riot, and struggling to rescue their friend from a high rise building.

And all the yelling, the laughing, the running, and the crying looks very real, very, very real! Thumbs up for the actors!

And you also get rare camera angles of humans struggles against horrifying thing that can smash the head of Statue of Liberty a mile away! Soldiers marching and shooting, tanks rolling in, rockets fired away, giant mouth screaming, and bombs smashing the grounds.

All feel very real!

CLOVERFIELD IS A MUST SEE!

This movie is the most absolute magnificent opus peak on how maximum action rides should be made! It makes me think that Death Trance is just a nicely done action pack; and my fans should know by now how much I love Death Trance (if you haven't that one, SHAME ON YOU!).

A guy sits on a bench on a dark night when a pregnant woman passes by. And then a car comes crashing and a jerk shout out profanities and cocks his pistol while he walks pass the guy sitting on a bench.

The guy on a bench was munching on a carrot, btw and he is a noble-hearted man who can't just watch a pregnant woman got chased by a hitman. So he stands up and follows, carrot in hand.

Then he gets tangled up in a gunfight, delivers the baby, and cuts the umbilical cord with a bullet.

And oh yeah, he kills a man with his carrot.

And he kills more man with carrots along the way while he tries to get the newborn baby (the mother was permanently disabled) to safety; connects with a lactating hooker so that the baby can be fed; brings the hooker and the baby to safety; makes his home a gallery of dead bodies by ways of interesting tricks to use pistols; invades a gun factory and makes entertaining uses of the boomsticks; blackmails a senator and then kills him on the politician's own plane; does a gunfight among the clouds and makes good use of helicopter rotorblades; and finally, he makes good of a fireplace.

All the while using carrots to various usages that ends up causing people to meet their maker.

And on his final showdown with his archnemesis, he carve a nice hole on the foe's body while all ten of his fingers are broken.

This movie is a must see.

Monica Bellucci is playing the lactating hooker part, and you will never ever see another shoot of a man munching on carrot and think "Wow, this movie has nice photography"

Go watch this movie!

Another anime complicated with philosophies, washed-out colors, blood, and ...unfortunately, quite generic characters and rather disjointed stories.

This anime is filled with philosophies, quoting directly from many known philosophies, and make the words coming from the mouth of the characters; in stories or in "unstories".

Unstories?

Yes. There are plenty of them in the last parts of this series. Episodes that take part inside the characters minds but the causes of the events are not explained fully;those episodes serve only as a "way-out" for the storywriters to compress many ideas into vessels that are not burdened by the weights of the storylines.

Confused? Yep. That's the reason why I cannot enjoy this series fully; there are many confusing turn of events that are either explained using dark-colored statics, monologues, or...out-of-the-world events.

To compress the stories: Mankind have left the earth rendered barren by the uncontrollable release of Methane-Hydrate from the melting polar ices (watch out, smokers!) and have left 300 uber-duper-super-oh-godly creatures called Proxies behind as tools to cleanse the earth and regenerate earth by using advanced material-manipulating technological miracles encoded inside their brains. The proxies then created several dome-protected colonies on the barren earth, complete with their faux-paradises, rigid-order system, and...yes...somehow populated by humans made by..the proxies. But when the humans are returning from space, the proxies are then made insane because...they would be eliminated by the returning humans. So the proxies went insane on their own way, and reflected by the state of their dome-paradises. And yeah, the proxies-made-humans are prone to do philosophies and have companion cyborgs that are prone to do philosophies went the are infected by Cogito (ergo sum) virus. Philosophies tend to make humans screwed up; Artificial Intelligences tend to screw up when not fed enough data; and anime viewers then to feel screwed up if not fed clear animations..

..meh..if only the actions are done nicely...

and oh yeah:

You complete My Faith *shivers*
The Word Unwinds Inside of me *shivers*
You Complete My Faith *shivers*
The Halo Crawls Away *shivers*

(Kiri - Monoral)

Such a nice opening song ~

This tokusatsu series starts with a whimper and lackluster actings,
but the feeling sof blahness will be totally WIPED OUT once you bear the usual amateurish actings done in a tokusatsu series once you reach the last parts of the series.

Now, you know that I love no-nonsense fights that are done beautifully and full of coordinated impacts (a la Death Trance), right?

Now,
Garo is,
THE EPITOME,
OF TOKUSATSU DUELS!

Really, you have to see it yourself: meek, office lady-type woman pulls out a high-kick; gothic-lady smashes a hard-boiled swordsman with wristslocks and headbutts; and hooker-type beauty goes all head-locking and swirl the WWF thingies; The fightings are just done BEAUTIFULLY, and have enough BANGS in them to truly CHAINS you to your CHAIRS!

This thing even succesfully put KABUTO to SHAME!

Really, if you haven't seen this one, see it: the fights won't disappoint you till the end!

Now, why five stars? Because, really, I was about to give this series 3 stars, but the last parts worth 6 stars on their own and have truly polish this series to high-sky quality!

Watch it if you love tokusatsu!

The terrorists are blasting things up all around the world! It's time for the Celestial Beings to utilize their assets around the world to seek them out!

The Idol and his trusty bodyguards then utilize their UBER DUPER network control server to locate and collect data from around the world! To their surprise, all three factions give out their data to collect. It seems the world thinks that CB is the one fitting for the job of wiping out the terrorists.

So the Gundam Meisters are rounded up and sent to their targeted positions.

One of the position is somewhere in britain, where nearby a certain princess is discussing terrorist outbreaks and connection between celestial being and the princess progress on finding help for her country.

A terrorist then bombed a place nearby, and Setsuna is sent to investigate in a vehicle that has two wheels, has roofs and windows, and is yellow with "TAXI" written on a board on top of it. He is able to confront the terrorist but got caught in the act by the local police.

Lucky for him, the TAXI has transparent window and the princess limousine also has transparent windows; and lucky for him, his face is decidedly anime-standard bishonen arabic so the princess feel some connection to him.

Helped, "Kamal Mazrif" then have a royal chit-chat with the princess who then got shocked, and threatened. He being Kurdish and she being a princess of a middle-asian country, things are not going well between their people.

Setsuna then took off to take his big blue and white thingie to do some ship sinking in an ocean. A clawed surprise got his legs, but few blades later he is victorious. DYNAMES, KYRIOS, and VIRTUE also succesful on their missions of eliminating the terrorist bases.

Meanwhile, on a civilian home, the Crossroads are talking about the terrorists uprising, the effects of Celestial Being activities, and the effects the terrorists give to Saji after he witnessed a bus got blown up in front of his and Louise eyes.

Still a good episode, have good balance between character developments and some mobile suit actions. We have now know more about Setsuna's background which is a take on current Kurdish and "jihadists" situations in middle-east. We also know that fundamentalists and reformists are still battling in out in the middle east. Saji and her sister also gives us a view from the outside of battlefield. And the great factions of the earth finally recognize the abilities of CB and let them do the terrorist bustings.

All in all, a good episode. 4 0f 5

EXIA got its ass handed to it by a custom ENACT, or so it seems. It turns out that Setsuna realized that the one driving that ENACT is none other than his former mentor, Ali Al-Gezer. This fact and the fact that Ali can really control his ENACT make Setsuna feels irritated and enraged. Something glows when he was enraged, and EXIA finally able to cut off Ali's ENACT attack. That something reminds me of Z and SEED; I thought I'll never seen something like that in a "close to reality" series like 00.

Setsuna then asked Ali to do it mano to mano, in breach of Celestial Being's policy of no-revelations. This makes their leader goes to act and cancels the duel while learning that the ENACT pilot is really is some surprisingly an excellent pilot.

AEU then pulls out their MS units and launch a white flag and CB then pulls themselves out of Moralia. This finalizes CB efforts to stop AEU military might display. CB has done it again, succesfully. But the rise of Ali will definitely be something interesting to watch in the future.

The Gundam Meisters then bicker among themselves due to Setsuna's brave challenge to Ali. Setsuna accepts all insults from Tierie and then finally say that his existence alone is the reason he was chosen to pilot EXIA. All ends in a stalemate between Tieria and Setsuna. Tierie is revealed more here; his status as the frigid spacenoid is established firmly.

We also served a flashback to Setsuna days of innocence, till he meet Ali Al-Gezer who changes him from child to man who has no resorts in violating woman. Kinda stereotypical, but the insertions of this idea of God's Soldiers who will oppose anyone and will be brutally discipline is a nice effort to make the wholesome idea of Gundam 00 world being 24th century Earth with problems inherited since 21st century feels true.

And then finally, CBs are given new problems: terrorists!

Nice episode as usual!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970472/

Director:
Fumihiko Sori
Writers:
Haruka Handa
Fumihiko Sori
Release Date:
18 August 2007 (Japan)
Genre:
Animation
Plot Outline:
Japan, 2077: A female agent named Vexille is dispatched to Tokyo to investigate whether Japanese are developing robotic technology, which has been banned by the U.N. due to its potential threat to humankind.



Vexille is another example of japanese animation movies go wrong. Not in animations style, which is top notch and very-very NEAT! The way this one goes wrong is in the way CASSHERN turns into a pretty garbage: choked in its own beauty and forgets that movies suppose to combine writing, cinematographies, scores, and actings into one nicely mixed blend. VEXILLE forgets nicely balanced flow of plottings, and misses some chance to make its cinematographies truly kicks ass (they need to learn from Michael Bay!). It is also losing stream of intelligence in the end because the way the plot ends is truly,madly, deeply, GENERIC!

With failed-to-impress ghibli films, PAPRIKA which is kinda overdone, and this movie which is half a sleeping pill, i am kinda pessimistic for the future of japanese big screen animations. Perhaps its time for them to import some british writers. I hope Neil and Alan is interested....

Overview

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461770/

Director:
Kevin Lima
Writer (WGA):
Bill Kelly (written by)
Release Date:
21 November 2007 (Indonesia)
Genre:
Animation / Adventure / Comedy / Family / Fantasy / Musical / Romance more

A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City in a story about a fairytale princess from the past who is thrust into present-day by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer. Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

It has been sometimes since I saw a movie that is true to its own heart. ENCHANTED is Disney's parody to its own princess-themed animated movies and a jab at the cynics among us.

The princess-to-be, a naive merry hearted innocent lass caled Giselle meets her prince but got cast away by his step-mother into the abyss where there will be no "happily ever-after and after"

That abyss is called real-life New York.

After a culture shock of blaring horns, stampeding commuters, and torrential rains, the naive lass in bloomful wedding dress is rescued by a widower knight in shining taxi (she was knocking on a "castle" when rescued)

The knight turned out to be a hopeless case of romance reject: he is a widower left by his wife, has a little girl he cannot understand, and is a....facilitator of divorce. So enter Giselle, a romance-filled storybook lass with ever optimistic view of love and lovers and yes, TRUE LOVE'S KISS!

Their lives will never the same again once the lass do her sings, summons her animal friends (pigeons, rats, and cockroaches of big city varieties) for help, cut curtains to make costumes (which are nicely made!), and comments about pain-in-heart to divorcing couple and cold widower.

And a fantasy (euh..real-life) princess movie will never be complete without a dashing prince in tight pants, a wicked witch, and her fall-in-lust pawn. The prince is a clueless narciss, the witch is a..well, typical step-mother witch, and the pawn is totally master of disguise but always run-out-of luck.

And yeah, don't forget Pip, the ever-nimble and ever-reliable chipmunk of the bravest breed!

When finally Giselle meet the dashing prince, she realizes that something has grown inside her. That something is revealed in a classic disney prince-and-princess ball, a hag and a poison apple, and a TRUE LOVE'S KISS!

In a twist of dragon and damsel-in-distress stories, the princess finally decides which one is her most desired man, and with a rapier and a brave soul, climbs up a skyscrapper and battle with the she-dragon!

And in the end, all is well. The princess stay with her man, The prince marries his glass-shoe woman, the pawn becames a man true with himself, and the queen, well, the queen fell 50 stories down and never ever heard from again.

After parodies of romantic princess animations, Disney decides to give the viewers what they really want, in movies or in real lives: A HAPPILY EVER AFTER ENDING.

More plot developments, More characterizations, more intrigues thrown in, and more players introduced.

And more equipments for DYNAMES and EXIA.

We are now introduced to the internal dynamic of AEU and small country called Moralia (Morally or More-of-a-liar :P ? You decide) which have dubious Halliburton-like corporation called PMC (lemme guess, Private Military Corporation?) which is a civil military contractor, and encompasses most of Moralia economy. Moralia is owner of an asset blown out by Dynames on previous episode, by the way.

We also follow the quest of Queen Marina, who is told that AEU cannot support Azadistan nowadays, with their own Solar Tower development slowed down and they are lagging on space colonization.

We also have our three female bridge members characterizations explored deeper, with one of them have a surprise tie to a member of UNION anti-gundam team.

Now that Moralia and AEU are conducting join-military training campaign, it is time for Celestial Beings to shut-down such a large scale of military display. This time, all four of the GUNDAMs are coming to the party.

DYNAMES new equipments are very helpful on assisting its role as sniper/long-range combatant. EXIA new equipments are making it looks cooler and make it look more like a bastard child of a ballerina and ninja. KYRIOS and VIRTUE are playing as usual. KYRIOS skirmishes the airforce with its homing-missiles, and VIRTUE wipes out several ranks of HELLIONs and ENACTs.

And Patrick Colsawar gets his butt burnt out by VIRTUE shoulder spam-beams. So much for a glorious ace.....

And EXIA has another mobile suit able to corner it: A customized ENACT piloted by former mentor of Setsuna: Ali.

All in all, an episode filled with political talks and plottings balanced by introduction of several cool equipments and Patrick's wackiness, packaged in yet another excellent animations delivery. 4 of 5 Stars.

Wow, Really, haven't seen sexed-up comedy that can balance between drama and comedy so well like this one for years. This should make Adam Sandlers rethink his career.

The way the story goes is natural, the way the slapstick done is so carefully executed, and they way the drama unfold is directed perfectly.

From the first time we are introduced to the characters, to the way they meet, and the way the cope with their differences and the incoming parenthood, it's all feels like a natural progression of life that grows inside the female lead artist: it's there and alive and undeniable.

Top notch!

Now this is how a Gundam episode should be made!

Queen Marina embarked on a journey to obtain Solarpowers for Azidistan, after being taught by Lady Une 00 that CB will do everything to obtain their missions to stop war.

Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy, our civilian teenagers cast embarked on a study journey to outer space. His older sister concern toward his relationship with the girl is shown.

Colonel Sergei and Supersoldier #1 is shown a PINK mobile suit, TIERIEN TAU-II and told that the PINK think is tuned up for Supersoldier #1 abilities.

During the journey, it is shown that Louise is a playful girl and Saji is a student. On arrival, our CivTeen duo took a guided tour to Gravity blocks of HRL solarpower pillar, watched the beautiful heavenly body that is blue planet Earth, and got tumbled down, only to be rescued by their guide-tutor.

Meanwhile, PINK and Colonel Sergei embarks on a training session to test the acceleration and precise controlling of the Supersoldier #1. TIEREN TAU-II proves to be a high-performing mobile suit, ready to be "answer for the appearance of GUNDAMs"

Allelujah Haptism takes the ride to the pillar, saying that he lovest to watch the blue planet from the sky. Arriving up there, something interesting then happened.

Newtype-flash, complete with mind-invading and all. And look who gets triggered: Supersoldier #1.

This proves to be a no goody-goody.

Supersoldier #1 goes uncontrollabler. Allelujah goes ID-switching and turns into mind-invader, and makes Supersoldier #1 goes berserk even more and starts shooting the gravity compartements of the pillar, causing three gravity compartements cut loose from the pillar and started drifting toward gravity.

Colonel Sergei then starts to try to push the cut loose parts, but his Tieren is unable to push the parts stronger. As all hopes start to wane, a shining star arrives: GUNDAM KYRIOS with sobered up Allelujah inside.

Even TIEREN and KYRIOS combined power is unable to push the gravity chambers far from the breakaway limit of gravity, but they gets a surprising, VERY VERY SURPRISING HELP!

VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY SURPRISING HELP!! Gotta to see it yourself!


Anyway, by the end of it, all lives inside the gravity chambers are saved, KYRIOS is let loose, HRL choose to save the gravity chambers instead. Captain Mitsurugi is scold by Tieria (really, WHAT IS THIS GUY?) for being deviant from VEDA recommendations and help KYRIOS helps the gravity chambers instead.

All-in-all, an episode full in developments: of plots, of characterizations, of the abilites of pilots and gundams, and of personal relationships told in a way that is smooth and encompassing. 5 of 5 stars, couldn't give it less!

The show starts with the crew of Ptolameus gather together, on their civilian clothes, to watch announcement made by HRL bigwig. The bigwig says that HRL will solidify their military prowess to thwart off any invasion by Celestial Being. Each candycrew then comment on that announcement, and we can catch a glimpse of their characterizations there.

We then watch a certain boy sitting calmly on a bench, eating hotdog (nyum) and watching people doing things they do on a park. All of sudden, a missile appears and all of them vaporized, except the boy. The boy is...something, I tell you. He is not normal. Not normal at all!

On a GUNDAM hanger (or is it a GUNDAM pod?), we watch Lockon and Allelujah talk like adult, discussing the progress they are making on raising awareness for CB. It is good to see a normal chat presented as normal chat, but the scripting is good nonetheless.

On a FLAG hanger, Graham is given present in form of a black, uptuned Custom FLAG and two cannonfodders (oops) to command.

A certain South American nation (which mapped on present day Venezuela) then declares Independence from UNION (and echo the sentiment of a Chavez guy). Of course, UNION don't sit still and launches their armed forces immediately.

And of course, our ever-ready CB guys are dispatched immediately too. Their mission is very surprising, but as explained nicely by various characters, it is logical and the fastest and least damaging action to be taken.

And in a certain Middle-east or Middle-Asian country, we see a princess and her provoc...err..advisor discuss things that are going on around them. They also stating that they don't have any trump cards to face other nations; but Lady Une 00 then says that they can use the GUNDAMs as their trump cards, if they can do something about them.

And Episode 03 started like no other Gundam series of 21st century have ever done before: from cockpit-view of Graham Acre's FLAG, watching EXIA's face and their respective blades in between. Graham shouted that he wants a piece of EXIA, but EXIA showed off his saber blade and gets FLAG's leg instead.

Graham then run off like a sissy.

On the Japanese News Network (JNN), reporters are on the rush for some announcement from some bigwigs, while on a class, history is being taught and our civilian characters express their view on history: the boy is bored and the girl is taken it as it is: "To prepare the colonization of space, we need to learn each other's history". Nice philosophy there.

On the Pillar of Heaven Solar Platform, Four Gundam Meisters meet up, chat up, and have a drink of .... pure white milk. "On Me!" says Lockon, their coolheaded leader. With this short scene, we can see the characterization of each Meister: Lockon is coolheaded, Allelujah is kinda airheaded, Tieria is reserved but pro, and Setsuna is uptight.

Megabi (sort of Megane Bishonen, Pretty Boy in Glasses, my nickname for Tieria) then took off with train while his mobile suit is being transported as parts of Pillar of Heaven construction material (MAJOR PLOT HOLE!). The other three Gundam Meisters then takes off on their own, doing their own separate missions.

Graham and Billy then assigned memberships of a newly formed special anti-gundam unit and are sent to join a bigwig whitehaired engineer. an a UNION hanger (which looks calm, despite called a special unit, because of being new?), three of them have a chat. Graham wants to capture a gundam unit and asks his FLAG to be tuned up in a week.

A report then comes in that a gundam is attacking Talivia. Graham then rushes to take off, but held back by the bigwig engineer. The old guy said that if that Gundam is leveling down poppy fields, that'd be okay with him; he hates narcotics. The said poppy-leveling Gundam is Kyrios. Inside, Allelujah comments that he prefers this kind of job: leveling down poppy fields using dropbombs instead of killing people. Good-hearted guy, eh? Shows off a character!

On a HRL hanger, Colonel Sergei (really, a chinese named Sergei? What about Sei Gei?) is being briefed by engineer that analyzes Kyrios left-over missile pod. No important thing is noted; the pod is not beyond HRL's technology. A report then comes that a gundam is attacking a nearby HRL base. Sergei then takes off, saying that "I prefer to see things before I believe them!". That Gundam is EXIA, which, as usual, is cutting of TIERENs like they are some kind of statues made of cheese. When the reguler TIERENs are all cut off, a new, winged model comes: Sergei's High Mobility TIEREN (with foldable wings and thrusters and paler paintjob). Sergei sees, Sergei believes. He then attacks EXIA, but gets his MS arm cut off, only to swerve around lightning fast and grabs EXIA's face. Setsuna, his visual sensor cut off, gets nervous and attack HM TIEREN'a arm with his GN-Bastard Sword (really, that is one big bastard sword) but to no effect. It seems that HM TIEREN's armor really is that thick. Setsuna then unleashes his beam saber and cut off Sergei's MS arm and split the MS into half. EXIA then grabbed the hand that is still grabbing its face, and threw it away with Setsuna warns to not touch him.

On an Africa diamond mine, Lockon lazily disables various puny mobile suits, saying that he feels like bullying the weak. When they run-off, DYNAMES seize firing.

On space, Virtue docks with Ptolomy, and transfers (huh?) its GN particle to power up the transporter. Tieria then says "Aaah..Space is better afterall..." Makes me wonder if he really is a spacenoid.

On Earth, Setsuna comes home and greeted by his neighbour, the civilian boy. He shrugs coldly but before saying his name. The neighbour then come inside, seeing his reporter sister takes off to catch a big news. Inside, he is called by his mistress, and told to see the news. In the news, Real IRA is telling the world that they will stop terrorizing things in Ireland. The civilian boy then comments "The world is.....changing"

Overall, we have nice reveal of characterizations, several plots that are moving forwards (anti gundam unit, ptolomy recharged by Virtue and not the other way around), and start to see the effect of CB's actions to the world's psychology. But 3 of 5 stars only because of the big plot hole of how exactly is Virtue being sent to space and lackluster fight scenes.

Waiting for next episode!

And we continue to episode 02.

The episode started with broadcast of Celestial Being representative claiming that their group is bearing on stopping war by war. The broadcast of this Ikari Gendo-type "Osama bin Laden" is then examined by a scantily clad girl, a Chairman of HRL, Contingent of AEU top brass, and the president of Union. The girl claims that she is bored by the broadcast. The Chairman of HRL give concerns on the unknown nature of Celestial Being and their weapons, mobile suits called Gundam. The AEU top brass said that they are humiliated that their secretly-developed weapon got one-upped by far more secretly-developed weapon. The President of The Union comments that "war-intervention" is "usually a tradition" of their nation.

We then found Graham Acre musing over the existence of Gundam and got lifted up by his subordinate to be transported to some place.

Afterward, we meet with Setsuna and Lockon on a pristine watered and thick forested tropical island somewhere on the Indonesian Ocean. They chat about their organization now famous claim, and got interrupted by the presence of a famous idol and her trusty bodyguard.

On outer space, Ptolomeus is launching KYRIOS and VIRTUE with Allelujah and Tierie on them. They then head-diving into the atmosphere, with the DM, sorry, GN particle shield protecting them from atmospheric friction, creating a beautiful scene of meteor falling, and surprising the hell out of HRL soldiers on board The Pillar of Heaven Solar Platform.

On the Island, the Lockon and Setsuan boards their respective humanoid WMDs. In a beautiful sequence that rarely seen in a Gundam series, the hatch of their independently mobile hangers opened up, raising their stored Gundams, and let them walk out. The walking out animation really gives you the feeling that they are in fact huge war machines. Shortly, in a nother beautiful sequence, they lift off. Hovering at first, and then accelerated fast. Somewhere, EXIA and DYNAMES then join KYRIOS and VIRTUE.

In another beautifully rendered animation, a battle is ensuing on Ceylon Island. HRL's TIERENs are owning the rebellion's AMPHs. Sniper TIEREN, with its sniping-cannon head and third butt leg are giving AMPHs a hard time. Regular TIERENs move around in a slow and menacing step that says "Fear Me, I am HUGE WALKING TANK" and put the rest of the AMPHs to its knees.

The party is then interrupted by EXIA, which, like always, moves gracefully. Being the bastard child of a Ninja Master and a Primadona Ballerina, EXIA dances around, blade in hands, and metal junks that were TIERENS pile up fall and pile up around it. DYNAMES helps it by giving "Death from Above" to the sniper TIERENs and their TIEREN guardians.

After the slugfest over, two AMPHs walk close to EXIA, and in a vengeful move, Setsuna cut them up.

On the other side of the Island, KYRIOS divebombs Ceylon's airport. Allelujah then drops-off KYRIOS now empty missile compartment and transforms his mobile suit into its sleek humanoid mode and start raining lasers (or metals, can't tell) on the airport. Somewhere, VIRTUE stands on a beach, sets up its BFG, and charges it all the while a HRL battleship bombard it. In a flash of deadly spear of light launched by VIRTUE's BFG, the ship is vaporized.

All around the world, this lates actions done by CB's Gundams are commented. One notably comment comes from a journalist that finds the fact that CB's "Osama bin Gendo" looks exactly the same as a 200 years death figure. The mystery then deepens.

Above the Indonesia Ocean, EXIA meet FLAG, and Setsuna gets his first taste of Graham's unhealthy desire toward him.

So here we are, at the beginning of the latest Mobile Suit Gundam series. This time, we shall visit Sunrise's vision of 24th century Human Civilizations (and no, no star-cruising, warp driven multi-species spaceship yet, although we have light-based propelled giant humanoids). This vision gives us three big "Super-States", the The World Economy Union (Organization of American States, Australasia, and Japan), The People's Revolutionary Alliance (China, India, Russia east to the Urals, Mongolia, South East Asia including Papua New Guinea, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka), and Advanced European Union ( European Union and Africa). Each of them controls a mean to harvest the last abundance energy resource available, solar power, which are the use of Solar-Collecting Orbital Platforms ( basically a higher than atmosphere tower with tons of solar panels on top and connected to a point on Earth).

The anime started with the title's flagship mobile suit, Gundam Exia wreaking havoc on the introduction of AEU's new flagship mobile suit line, Enact. The agile 15 meter (or so) giant do a whooping (and AMAZING) blade dance and cut off limb parts of the Enact. This made the pilot of Enact, claiming to be the ace of battle-simulations, ashamed beyond redemption and swore revenge (comically) on the white-blue-red-and-yellow mobile suit that had just bitch-slapped him hard.

Exia then left, hovering up in a move that can only be described as graceful (like ballerina, really, watch it to truly believe it), chased by several AEU's Hellions. Being the cool main hero that he is, Setsuna (Pilot of Exia), dodged the swarming attackers. He then moved like some razor-blade riding Airgear master (oops, wrong anime) and with graceful agilities of a kungfu/ninja master, Exia carved them art artistically and makes us feast on the harmony of destructions that ensued beautifully.

All the while, another Gundam sniped out the rest of the Hellions that were left out of Exia dance. This gundam, Dynames, laid back in what could be described as the laziest Gundam pose ever seen, and blasted up its laser-sniper rifle with deadly accuracy. The pilot, Lockon, can be seen as laid back lazily as his gundam while his pet-robot, Haro (orange this time and piloting), commented over and over.

With the Hellions put out of business, Setsuna and Lockon then commented that "first mission completed". I say it damn is completed, gracefully done at that too!

Then we get transported to the space, on top of The People's Revolutionary Alliance's orbital platform, to feast our eyes on a party where the people are standing upside down (it's a silly gravity thing). Some rude party crashers then come, and launched three missiles on the orbital platform. PRA's Space-Type Tierens (that's PRA mass-produced mobile suits) then launched to intercept them, but their bulky bodies are no match for the party crashers Hellions agility. But thanks to them, cavalry arrive, this time in the form of Gundam Kyrios (in its sleek, zeta-waverider like form) that spit out fire and took the shameless party crashers in another graceful move. Its pilot, Allelujah (who has the creepy habit of talking to himself) then smiles.

One Hellion who has the unfortunate of not receiving Kyrios then departs toward the orbital platform, and launched its missiles. No one was there to intercept, except another Gundam called Virtue. This bulky Gundam who could put RX78GPO02A Physalis to shame then assembled its equally bulky Particle-Launcher Cannon. Its pilot, the beautiful pretty-in-glasses type (but alas, a male) Tiere then commanded its metal doll to blast-off the cannon. The remaining Hellion then got eaten up by a blue-and-shining path of destruction, courtesy of the chubby Virtue (cute design, by the way).

Afterward, we are introduced to the crew of Gundam Carrier Ptolomeus, notably its captain and strategist, Sumeragi. They are a bunch of disciplined underages, by the way, except the captain and strategist who loves to drink in the cocpit.

And the first episode is closed by the appearance of some scary-looking bald dude who claimed that Gundams are the weapons of choice of a group called Celestial Being, a paramilitary group who will enforce war to end all wars.

All in all, a nice opening episode that will grip your heart and entice your soul right away (especially that graceful moves of Exia, man, that Mobile Suit is even more agile than Naruto! Gotta have the model kit!)

S: "CRAPS!"
Z: "Wazzup?"
S:"They say don't judge a book by its cover, and in this case, it's TRUE!"
Z:"Wow, the cover is something!"
S:"More like the coloring of the cover is something. The lineart is nothing special"
Z:"And the content?"
S:"Shina is better. Hell, even Knights of Apocalypse looks like Akira compared to this lazy ass comic book!
Z:"Well, you're right. This dude doesn't know how to make comic books"
S:"The layout is crappy! The lineart is half-assed!" The inking is like blots of ink poured down by drunken monkey!"
Z:"The finishing is unbalanced too. Tonings are rarely used, and when they are used, it looks like it substracts the goodness, not adding."
S:"And the story! Man, the art is so CRAPPY i don't care about what the story is!"
Z:"Perfect example of visual implementation killing the ideas."
S:"YEAH! THAT'S IT! PERFECT SUMMARY OF THIS TRASH!"
Z:"And speaking about visual implementation...I think the creator of this comic care more about displaying his visual coloring finishing on the covers and the bonuses than the grayscale-toned finishing inside. We have four bonus arts that are superb"
S:But I was buying a comic book, a book which supposed to tell something (and don't ask me what's that something is, it's so generic I chose to forget it right away), not some four pages art book!
Z:"Yeah, you're right. Steer clear of this book, folks. It's a total waste of money!"
S:"And while we are discussing a Megindo book, where in seventh hell is Knights of Apocalypse?"
Z: "Dunno. Cancelled?"
S:"They have published just one of three books and it got cancelled? Megindo really is a total ass-hole in term of publishing books. Inspirit Arena, one book out and no further news. Knights of Apocalypse, cancelled? I will really wonder what is inside Megindo bigwigs heads when I see Mayana book 2 out first then the next books of those previous two!"
Z:"Agree, brother. agree!"

Salah satu geng cergamis yang cukup mendapat nama di kancah persilatan tanah air kembali mengeluarkan karya terbarunya yaitu serial Knights of Apocalypse (dijanjikan sampai tiga buku). Dan cergam yang satu ini memang bagus: dunia latar latar yang dibikin dengan niat meski agak plagiat, karakter-karakter yang menarik nan agak generik, dan mesin-mesin perang yang dibuat dengan bagus tapi kurang kreatifus (halaah, maksain ber-rima nih!), dan cerita yang cukup menarik.

Cukup menarik, tapi tidak cukup kuat untuk membuat penulis menantikan sequelnya. Kenapa? Karena ceritanya terkadang membuat mata ini pening. Is and geng terasa sekali masih belum bisa terlepas dari "talking head syndrome" dengan banyaknya balon kata yang menemani panel-panel yang flat dengan karakter-karakter yang expressionless. Banyaknya "talking head" ini membuat ekesekusi cerita menjadi terkesan flat dan mati gaya. Banyaknya informasi yang dikeluarkan melalui talking heads, dan banyaknya karakter-karakter yang dikeluarkan di buku pertama ini bisa membuat kapasitas memori otak overloaded.

Artwork dari buku ini cukup bagus dan cukup mengecewakan sekaligus. Cukup bagus karena dibaut dengan rapi dan tidak banyak kesalahan anatomi, perspektif, maupun background. Cukup mengecewakan karena artwork di-ink dengan kesan yang cukup asal-asalan; penintaaan inline dan outline mempunyai ketebalan yang sama, terkadang garis-garis liar cukup terlihat, terutama dalam penggambaran benda-benda mekanis. Halaman terakhir dari bab pertama buku ini cukup memberikan penggambaran betapa inking dari tim ini masih perlu diperbaiki. Toning di artwork sendiri pun masih belum keliatan digarap dengan serius. Artwork tanpa toning mendominasi buku ini; digabungkan dengan artwork dengan tinta yang kurus-kering, terbayang di kepala betapa buku ini bagaikan pohon kering dengan ranting kering tanpa daun....yep, mungkin ini penggambaran yang tepat.

Dragon Ball Z dan Naruto mempunyai artwork yang miskin toning, tapi punya karakter-karakter dan cerita-cerita yang benar-benar bisa bikin menarik bahkan seluruh dunia!

Saya benar-benar ingin memberikan bintang 4 untuk komik ini, tapi talking heads yang dizzying my heads, inking yang bikin kering-kerontang, membuat satu bintang harus dibuang. Anggap saja ini tamparan sayang saya pada tim cergamis yang sudah capek-capek membuat buku ini.

Dan satu lagi buat Is and gang: mbok ya fokus dulu bikin komiknya, jangan game and animasi digarap juga, jadinya kering-kerontang kan tuh komiknya...

Early 2006 was the first year I came back to the world of american superheroes comic books. I was dazzled by an art on Indonesian edition of Wizard magazine; the art was of a superhero called Green Lantern, pencilled beautifully, inked magnificently, and colored vibrantly. It was an art from the now infamous Green Lantern: Rebirth storyline.

I then started a habit - a bad habit if you will - of downloading scanned copies of every issues of the storyline. Upon opening the issues, I was AWESTRUCK! The story is good; very unlike so many superheroes comic books I had read back then which features tasteless stories, aggravating artworks, and non-existing impacts on me (I was a manga devotee since the start of the 90, and my taste has matured).

Green Lantern: Rebirth is a PERFECT example of a COOL storywriter meets a PERFECT artist. It tells story of an iconic character who was labelled as fallen hero fighting his way back into the light of truth; it also tells the story of what fear is; and in the end, it tells the story of a galactic order enforcing family that goes by the name Green Lantern Corps.

It is a perfect lure for them to lure me into the world of DC superheroes comic books. Me, a manga devotee, can claim that a book had widen my horizon. And the book was titled Green Lantern: Rebirth.

Geoff Johns was the master; Ethan Van Sciver was the master; and Green Lantern: Rebirth was their masterpiece.

Now the duo is back, presenting another tale that revolves once again around The Green Lantern Corps and their nemesis. Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver is delivering a tale of another fallen hero who has been unable to return to the light he was guarding; tale of once The Greatest Green Lantern; tale of Sinestro.

This is Green Lantern: Sinestro's Corps Special, and it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G !

Call this writing biased; call this fans blinded; and I'll call you the non-enlightened. I read this book, and I came back enlightened by the sheer force of the storyline gave to me. It is simply: amazing.

It started perfectly; taking us inside Sinestro's mind as he faced his memories that he fear most: his defeat at the hand of Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner. Then we are brought out, and are forced to amaze the transformation of Sinestro into the master of its own corps. The message here is "Was The Greatest Green Lantern"

Afterward, the story brings us to Earth; the de-facto center of the DC universe, even if they make you tell otherwise. Here we have the Earth's mighties heroes being handed down their asses by a reverse-speedster, before a Green Lantern came. The fights are perfectly done, and clearly shows that Hal Jordan is the best Green Lantern yet (and showing that the league is crippled without a speedster). The message here is "What makes a hero better?"

Space comes later; with two green lanterns under attack and unable to cope with it. The third "Green Lantern" came; Ion (Kyle Rayner) is here to save the day. Then we are reminded that Ion is the next in the evolution of a Green Lantern, and we are refreshed that he was "The Torch Bearer". The message here is "The Evolution of The Torch Bearer"

At the home of The Green Lantern Corps, Armor-covered Planet Oa, The Guardians of The Universe (immortal blue dwarfs) are examining an entity with combination of metal and flesh as face. And as usual, they started bickering with each other; and as usual, they regard the informations gained from the cyborg as just another informations, and return to their inert status quo; except two of them. The message here is "Never turn a blind eye to visible signs"

Then we have Green Lanterns of Earth hanging out together, after one of them visit a red sun. We can see other Green Lanterns whispering behind their backs, gossiping and spreading opinions on them while the GLs from sector 2814 coolly mingled together, sharing stories, till a ring went crazy, hit other lanterns, and succesfully kidnapped GL 2814.4, while the others can only watch. The message here "Something can be more powerful than Willpower!"

And that something is FEAR, and GL 2814.4 comes face to face with its soldiers and their taskmaster. He put out a lot of fight; physically and mentally. In the end, he lost his essence and is forced to take in another essence; The Essence of Fear; PARALLAX! The message here: "To win, empty your enemies souls!"

Thus ends the introduction to the embodiment of Fear and its soldiers; and thus began the all-out-assault by those who seeks revenges to the heroes of the multiverse: Sinestro, Parallax, an embodiment of the essence of the anti-universe, a fearsome cyborg, and worst of all: the anti-thesis of philosophies of Superman and the reason of the last Crisis: Superman-Prime!

Welcome back, guys; the world is in a mess without you!