Note: I am not a hardcore dragon ball fan now, I was when I was younger (like any other highly hormonic growing teenage boy, I enjoyed watching bulky sweaty anime men train and fight). So the following review is based on my views as a half-ass fan. Enjoy!

How to begin? As everyone knows, this movie is not exactly best film of the year. My partner in crime and I ventured in the theater, knowing not to expect much, as so to prevent later disappointment and tears. We were ‘right on’ (groovy…?).

The story is loosely based on the original Dragon Ball story, merging the first dragon ball hunting saga with the King Piccolo saga together as one convenient anecdote. The setting looks to be like a modern ‘white’ society, with geeky Goku (Justin Chatwin) having problems fitting in his school, when suddenly, he is burdened to save the world from King Piccolo, an evil Namek, whose goal is to collect all dragon balls in order to “take my (his) vengeance upon the Earth”.

The movie was, for my taste, too lame and corny. There was too much emphasis on rebuilding the typical ultimate hero-like character, and not nearly enough effort to capture Goku’s free spirited story (“Far too much dancing and not nearly as enough prancing!” – Mr. Burns) Typical equals: “5000 years ago, an evil was locked away (blah)…you are destined to save the world (blah)…you are the destined warrior (blah)…”

King Piccolo’s makeup and costume was sickening, so was Goku’s trademark orange martial arts outfit. No need for explanations.

The fights scenes were ok though, where the lameness did help (for this particular type of movie), including good (and unintentionally funny!) slomo punches and impact scenes. The visual effects of the ‘ki’ energy weren’t that great though. Instead of taking a solid and luminous form as in the anime, the ki were presented as gaseous and misty. This didn’t look too great and impressive, compare to the anime at least, especially in the fight scenes where they are just throwing feeble-looking vapours at each other (fart much Goku?).

As mentioned above, we watched this film with minimum expectations, and surprisingly, it worked. It was quite enjoyable (and as said, unintentionally funny), but definitely not memorable. The best bits in the movie were the ones that probably included the cleavage-d exhibitionist Chi Chi (Jamie Chung), and the fobby and perverted Master Roshi (Yun-Fat Chow). As you can see, their descriptive verbs explains why.

In conclusion, the movie was not an evolution. Overall, I would rate this movie 3/7 dragon balls. Yes, the rating is out of the odd number 7, because there are 7 dragon balls in the movie, get it? (Kaka, I’m hilarious!) Read more...

Straylight Run is an indie rock band originating from Long Island, New York; a place where other infamous bands such as Taking Back Sunday and Brand New have emerged. Band members include John Nolan on Vocals/Guitar/Keyboard, Shaun Cooper on Bass Guitar, and Will Noon on Drums.

As part of touring around Australia with the Soundwave Festival, the various genre of bands
all played warm-up side shows the night before hitting the main stages at each of the states. While in Melbourne, Straylight Run played at the Next! at Colonial Hotel, corner of King and Lonsdale St, along with Jaguar Love and Minus the Bear.

Now, my companions that night included (by their blog IDs) Chicken, Patrick, Chau! and Veeble; a bunch of crazy hooligan friends I picked up around my first year of university. Actually, change of plans, I seem to have writers block, so from now on, I’m just going to write as I talk…no more structured sentences! (Thanks Chicken!)

Ok, so here’s the story, we were in the city at about 6pm, and the show was scheduled to start at 9pm, so we had a good 3 hours to eat and bum (As in laze around! Don’t think dirty!! O_O).
In the end we ate at the Nandos along King St, and guess who came in! Straylight Run themselves!! My body almost died from sheer shock and happiness! I was just going to hide and spy on them for a while, but luckily my companions had more sense than me to convince me to talk and get photos with them, we did, and now I cherish these photos more than table tennis balls!

Anywhoooo, we got in the place at about 9pm. Next! is a nicely designed place, a darkish atmosphere with a light red glow theme (sorry I don’t remember much more!). The small stage was, of course, the central point for the venue, with various balconies and reserved places to view the performance.

The show started on time with Jaguar Love performing first, no offence, but they sounded horrible. With only two members, an OKish guitarist (using a Gibson SG guitar) and a crazy frizzball vocalist (with a cat’s screech for a voice), plus a tape for backup drums and sync, the whole thing sounded like a very loud and noisy mess…

Next, Straylight Run! They performed an array of old and new songs. Let me also note, that Will Noon is a mad drummer (in a good sense!) He really rips those drums like no tomorrow!
Starting off with Wait and Watch, they immediately captured my attention with its mixture of a melodic piano tune and thudding drum and bass beats, followed by a more heavier and aggressive chorus bellowing “I’m gonna wait and watch the world die!”
Mistakes We Knew We Were Making had a similar format, but with its chorus being a bit more cheery (poppy?) and less demanding. This was the song when I forgot about all my troubles. The lines “So we bottle and shelve, all our regrets…” and onwards really made me feel at bliss, and temporary shielded me from the issues and problems I was experiencing at the time…Thanks Straylight Run! =)
Around the middle of the set, they played a new song, I think it was called I Do, but definitely not sure! Being the incurable nature of a live performance, it was hard to process and understand the new song completely, but it sounded like it had something to do with marrying someone?
Existentialism on Prom Night needs to be mentioned, as it is mine and Chicken’s song. Not much to note about this particular performance, except that without former member, Michelle Nolan’s guitar strums, it sounded very empty and naked, not that I’m complaining! I quite like this broken down version!
They finished off with an emotionally high Hands in the Sky, which I felt left a very foreboding and hollow feeling in the air, constantly echoing “…they’ll tell you when they’re hungry again… they’ll tell you when they’re hungry again… they’ll tell you when they’re hungry again…” A good mysterious and sense-hungry impression to leave on the audience!

Well, we left after their performance, we didn’t wait to watch Minus the Bear (personally, I didn’t want to risk another Jaguar Love like performance).

We all got home safely and that’s the end! I realise that I wrote too much! So if you read up to here, thanks for bearing to read all this nonsense! Really appreciated! I am definitely not a writer, nor do I particularly enjoy writing, so please don’t criticise my review too badly!

I would give Straylight Run’s side-show a whooping 5/5 ducks! They performed perfectly and well! Not relying on bopping heads and hardcore ‘rocking out’ like some other idiotic bands out there! Now, off to get Roast duck on my next outing! YUM!

Trung!Read more...