A Not-Really Review: Underworld: Awakening (3D) (2012)

So many movies, so little time! But I must note down my thoughts on the latest Underworld installment, because my love for Kate Beckinsale is only trumped by my love for Kristen Stewart, and I’m beginning to think I don’t love KStew all that much any more, because I haven’t been able to bring myself to suffer through Twilight, yet was able to frown my way through hopefully the last movie of the Underworld franchise.

That was a very long sentence. The rest of this review will be short and sweet, much like how I wished Underworld: Awakening was…

Selene is confused as to why there is a fire, when this movie is as fiery as something that is patently not fiery e.g. a damp towel.

Preconceptions: Fourth movie of the Underworld series. Kate Beckinsale is a vampire outcast who does funny things in my pants. Would you believe I’m somewhat of a feminist?

Expectations: It is a well-established fact that, the greater the number of installments in a movie series, the lower the quality of each installment is, following an indirectly proportional scale. So I didn’t have that many expectations. Didn’t even know what the plot was, as I hoped to be pleasantly surprised.

Alas, it was not to be. What a horrendous movie. A complete and utter waste of 3D, which I believe should only be used to: make beautiful sceneries (Thor, Avatar), and Daft Punk movies (Tron: Legacy). Only half kidding there – Underworld: Awakening was visually so dark, so incredibly dull, and the 3D felt patchy at best… it was like playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey without the donkey. What’s the point?

Apart from the bad, bad, bad visual side of things (which I should mention made me feel like I was following the opening storyline of a computer game from the late ’90s/early ’00s), the plot didn’t do much to help itself either. What I liked about the previous Underworld movies was the fact that it focused on the Lycan/Vampire feud and how Selene basically destroyed the coven from within. This time, Awakening is a basic rehash of any other zombie apocalypse movie, albeit with a vampire slant; that is to say, another vampire vs. humans movie where humans discover that vampires and Lycans exist and want to eradicate them like rats, but from the vampire’s perspective. Close, but no cigar.

But wait, what an epic twist! Selene breaks out of cryogenic captivity to find that she is 12 years into the future! And instead of being reunited with her hybrid boyfriend Michael, there waits a little girl who looks scared and endearing at first but breaks out the hybrid freakiness when under pressure! Boom! And so they join up and avenge themselves(??) against their captors, which includes, Chris Martin Kris Holden-Ried who you will all of course remember from Lost Girl where he (gasp!) also plays a werewolf! This guy’s got it down pat.

Oh, I don’t know. I still feel so very disappointed that it didn’t work out between me and Awakening. The worst thing is that they opened up the ending for YET ANOTHER sequel… um, can we not?

VERDICT: It sucked. Maybe it might be less distracting in 2D. TWO out of FIVE toasters; one for Kate Beckinsale and the other for an epic scene involving an elevator and two guns.

A Sort-of Concert Review: MEN at 4:20 Bar

Last night I had the best experience of my concert-going life. Muse still tops the list for me in terms of a sound and the so-called “emotional” experience; HOWEVER, I have not been able to photograph any Muse concerts like I did the MEN concert last night at 4:20 bar in Auckland. Speaking from a fan perspective, it was a great gig; speaking from a photographer’s perspective, it was bloody fantastic.

MEN was the first ever concert photography I’ve tried my hand at with my 350D. I only have two lenses, a Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 and a Canon 50mm f/1.8, so it’s obvious which lens I had to take with me last night. I was pretty freaking nervous and incredibly excited – this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I read a ton of articles, some of them contradictory and some of them reinforcing what I already knew, watched past MEN concerts, listened to their album – but really listened this time, to learn the slow bits and the fast, catchy sections and ended up with Credit Card Babie$ in my head for much of the week.

4:20 is a small, very intimate venue for gigs. It’s the sort of bar you’d go to to see your friend’s band play; smaller than that sometimes, even. The stage is quite low and there aren’t any barriers, so I was able to get right up front and do whatever I wanted. The side-of-stage was also open and after having a chat with the sound engineer I got the green light to worm my way past the speakers and cables and shoot from there as well. I ended up spending over half of the gig watching from the wings – as a fan, this was the best view because I was so close to the band; as a photographer it was both a blessing and a curse: my shooting angles were restricted because I could really only shoot the band’s profile, but I had a decent view of the audience and was able to get a couple of good shots of them from there.

I’m very happy with how my shots turned out. Personally, I’m a fan of not using flash (on-camera or external) during concerts, unless of course there is that crucial shot that you MUST catch or if you’re shooting the audience, and prefer to work with the settings manually. I’m making it a point to learn to use my on-camera flash effectively before I move onto strobist work, but I feel as though flash-at-concerts is a no-no apart from the aforementioned exceptions. So from that point of view, coming away with 20+ photos that I felt proud of enough to upload, and a handful more for personal reference, was a definite win.

I must also add here that making friends with the lighting engineer is the best piece of advice I got for last night. It was so easy to introduce myself, say I was taking a few photos, and ask him what the set up was going to be for the night. He agreed to “try not to strobe it too much” for me for the first song and a bit… he was true to his word, and I don’t think I made the most of it, but my photos wouldn’t have been half as decent, I think.

The rest of the photos are here, at my Flickr.

THE GIG ITSELF

MEN are a band on my Gig Bucket List. Someone asked me how I knew of them and I said, “Twitter…?” and that is probably true. As well as the fact that JD Samson is a big name in LGBT music, Twitter has kept me updated on performances and releases, so hooray for social media!

There were meant to be two opening acts, but on the night it was only short shorts-wearing disco dance maestros Spring Break, who were meant to come on at 9:30 but ended up taking the stage at around 45 minutes after that instead. I was half dead on my feet and very worried that I wouldn’t last the night. I should have known not to worry; photo processing keeps us all up well past 2am… and I was so pumped with adrenaline by the end of it anyway, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Spring Break played about five or six songs and then MEN got ready to play their set. I must mention at this point that JD Samson walked past me a couple of times and I probably was too pleased to note that she is a very little person, littler than I expected. (It’s unusual for me, as a little person, to meet other little people, so bear with… and you have to say that like Miranda’s mum.)

JD Samson & co. kicked off with Life’s Half Price and went through most of their debut album before they closed with my favourite, Be Like This, and Who Am I to Feel So Free. Crowd went nuts for the last one, it was amazing. They played a couple of new songs in between as well; I didn’t catch the names.

After the gig I spoke to Michael and JD (separately) and I’m always so surprised at how different some musicians can be outside of their performing persona. Both of them were so soft-spoken, really nice, and incredibly polite. That’s not to say they weren’t polite on-stage: JD was a pretty cool frontperson who filled in the tuning gaps and pauses with banter and band introductions, and explained the intentions for a few of the more overtly political songs like Credit Card Babie$.

Michael left the stage immediately after the single-song encore to man the merch desk and that was another thing that made last night so memorable. I’ve missed going to gigs by non-mainstream bands. All the ones I’ve spent my money on as of late have been at Vector Arena, or the Trusts Stadium; as much as those venues and bands are great (allowing them to command a fee for the likes of those stadiums), you just don’t get the same feel as the intimacy of a small gig. Stating the obvious, I know, but who else is going to state it, right?!

All in all, a great night. I am on a dream cushion of gig photography and great music.

The setlist, taken with flash. GET IN, GET OUT.

FILM REVIEW: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

PRECONCEPTIONS: Remake of the original Swedish film. Which was a movie adaptation of the very good novel.

EXPECTATIONS: When news first broke of an American remake of the Swedish movie (of which I’d seen the second film), I thought, “Not another Let the Right One In…” But as more information came out, plus the trailer, I began to look forward to seeing it. And, Daniel Craig plus Rooney Mara plus David Fincher. You could do a lot worse.

This is a long movie. It was a late night screening. It had been a long day. Scene set, I was a bit wary as I entered the cinema. Was this going to be another Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? (Review of that up soon.) Was it going to be a good movie that I wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate due to my fatigue?

I think the outcome was a mixed bag. I was tired, but the movie was fairly engaging. I’d read the book, long enough ago to forget the outcome but not long enough ago to forget the bits that really stick in your head (Lisbeth’s revenge on her rapist, anyone?). Fincher’s style was such that you wouldn’t forget those parts in the movie version, either.

1. An opening sequence is like the first track of a CD. It sets the tone for everything that follows. This opening sequence = epic. Love the visuals and NIN cover of Led Zep. Probably the best opening sequence I’ve seen since Drive, which admittedly wasn’t that long ago but was still crazy awesome. It turned out to be the highlight of the movie for me, but did a fantastic job of setting the tone for the rest of the film.

2. Daniel Craig retains his British accent while everyone else puts on a Swedish one. Does this mean that British counts as Swedish, or passable at least? I’ve always wondered about Americans making a movie set in Europe. It would be naff to set it in America, but at the same time to have Swedish papers and news whatevers while the characters hold dialogue in English…

3. Rooney Mara.

4. I can’t not talk about the music. Sound editing was awesome, the lack of music in certain scenes just added to the intensity as well. Can’t go wrong with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, can you? I think I’m still on a high from the opening sequence.

VERDICT: It was good. I don’t think I ever expected it to not be. THREE out of FIVE toasters.

Supercity Derby: Auckland City FC vs Waitakere United

This weekend I had the pleasure once again of shooting the latest supercity derby match between Auckland City FC and Waitakere United in the ASB Premiership. And once again I scored the Canon 300mm f/2.8 from the professional photographer the team hires to take their photos… not permanently, unfortunately, and again without a monopod either! Good thing I have been doing those chin-ups at the gym.

The local derby is always a highlight of the season and one of the most highly-attended matches at Kiwitea Street. The game was chocker with action and the ref was a busy man, dishing out three yellow cards in the first half alone. A tense 45 minutes indeed! In the end, though, ACFC pulled out the win, 3-1 with goals from Luis Corrales, Daniel Koprivcic, and my personal favourite, Manel Exposito. Waitakere’s lone goal, which came early in the second half, was scored by Chris Bale.

This being my second time with the 300mm fixed lens, it was a challenge still, but as the game went on I grew a lot more comfortable with it. Getting more familiar with each team’s playing style really helped as well due to the need for anticipating the action to get a good shot off. One of the things I noticed was the focusing speed of either my camera or the lens (and seeing what lens I was using, I’m thinking it’s my 350D combined with my inability to predict the play!) which meant I was left with quite a few unfocused shots during crucial moments of the match.

However, I did come away with more than a handful that I’m very happy with. Below are a few of my favourites, and as always all the photos have been uploaded to my Flickr, which you can view here.

FRIDAY PHOTO: Week Three, Football

One of my new year’s resolutions is to be more adventurous with my dSLR photography. I set a weekly challenge for myself, in which I work on a different theme each week and post the result(s) on Friday.

I’ve decided to change the title of my weekly challenge! I think “Friday Photo” sets it apart from just a generic sort of photograph, in the event that I actually do use my camera for something unrelated to my resolution. This week I had the great privilege of shooting two Auckland City FC matches, against Canterbury United in the ASB Premiership on Saturday and then once again mid-week against Amicale FC of Vanuatu in the O-League. Needless to say it was an amazing experience for someone like me. On Wednesday I even had a chance to sit in the OFC broadcasting van before the match to watch them set up for the live screening of the match across the Pacific.

(Side note: to gain automatic points with hot New Caledonian cameramen and engineers, wear your Fédération Française de Football jersey.)

On Saturday I was introduced to the professional photographer ACFC employs to shoot their matches. He let me use his Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS lens. AWESOME. On Wednesday he let me use his Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS. TOO AWESOME. It was such a huge difference going from zoom to fixed. My goal was to come away with one decent photo on Wednesday, and I think I got halfway there. Out of three hundred-odd photos, this is one I’m happy to let out into the scary dark world of the internets:

This is from Saturday’s match with the 70-200mm:

One of the biggest challenges I had with the two lenses was focusing. With the fixed lens the main problem was getting the action in the frame. This being only the second and third occasion I’ve shot football also meant I was still very slow and getting the camera in the right place at the right time in addition to trying to anticipate the action.

I don’t have a monopod and the tripod I borrowed from a kind friend was too bulky to move around and there was limited space behind the barrier as well. So I had to hand hold the lenses on each occasion… a good muscle-defining workout if I ever had one. I think the monopod will give me a lot more stability and leave me with time to focus on the action rather than not dropping the lens or stretching my camera mount.

Next week I’ll have a detailed post of my experience behind the scenes as well as on the field with ACFC at Kiwitea Street. Until then…

FILM REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2012)

PRECONCEPTIONS: The second Sherlock Holmes movie. It’s about playing in shadows…? The posters looked a lot like the ones for the first movie. I never read any of Conan Doyle’s stories and don’t know much (if anything) of the backstory apart from the fact that Moriarty is the Magneto to Holmes’ Professor X… except they never used to be friends. Right?

EXPECTATIONS: Can’t seem to go wrong with Robert Downey Jr. nowadays, and I am quite partial to a bit of Jude Law, but it is a sequel after all…

Overall, I had mixed feelings about the film. It really dragged on for me. If I were to graph my experience, it would have been in the shape of a hammock weighed down by heavy afternoon rain. I loved the beginning, and Rachel McAdams. I loved the ending, and how clever it was. Maybe I liked the ending in particular because it meant that now I could leave the cinema without feeling bad about missing some part of the movie, but I liked it nonetheless.

It had been a long day for me beforehand, and we went to the 9 PM session; I was super tired by 10 and didn’t really check on how long the movie was going to be. That was probably a big factor in why the second act felt endless.

Again, a few thoughts:

1. They are taking this Shadow theme far too seriously. I can’t see a thing!

2. Moriarty is David Robert Jones! I mean, Jared Harris. Harris is such a delightfully creepy villain… he plays the part so well. I wonder if his eyebrow is permanently fixed in that position.

3. “It’s so overt it’s covert.” LOL.

4. “Lie down with me, Watson.” The line that will spawn a thousand fanfics…

5. Noomi Rapace! She is delightful. That is all.

6. Can we get some lighting up in this scene?

7. I love these fight-breakdown scenes. Hans Zimmer once again comes through with a spectacular score to go with. Am I the only person in the world who can’t appreciate a good soundtrack without the visual accompaniment? I first discovered this with Atonement. Watching the movie: HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING MUSICS. Soundtrack alone: Hm. I think the two – the movie and the music – get too tied in together for me to listen to just the music alone afterward.

VERDICT: I wanted to like it. Robert Downey Jr. continues to be irresistible. However, the action pieces and plot carried on without lustre in the majority of the scenes. THREE out of five toasters.

PHOTO, MAN: Week Two – Abstract: Outdoors

One of my new year’s resolutions is to be more adventurous with my dSLR photography. I set a weekly challenge for myself, in which I work on a different theme each week and post the result(s) on Friday.

This one’s late as I’ve just started working full time again and had an unexpectedly busy weekend. As you would expect from being busy, I’ve had to actually leave the house! And since my home is so freaking far away from anywhere else in the city, I like to experiment with different routes just to keep things fresh and hopefully avoid accidents caused by zoning out from the familiarity.

There’s a road (Road A) that’s very close to my house and I alternate between it and Road B to connect to the motorway. It’s speed limit is 20 km/h higher than all the other roads in the area, and quite a few drag races are held there for that very reason. One day I drove down Road A and found the speed limit sign like this:

Perhaps a resident got pissed off and tried to do something about the racing? Cops REALLY cracking down on speeding?