Up, close and personal

So this is a new example of how sci-fi is doing good lately. Me, I like series than, rather than collecting more or less connected anecdotic adventures of the cast, go in a well defined direction, like Babylon 5, Whedon's short lived Firefly or the new version of Galactica. I'm afraid, I can't recall the old BG, but this one certainly is good. The story goes as follows.

Humans, living in 12 separate colonies, created intelligent robots -the cylons- to do the hard work. Obviously, these robots rebelled and fought their creators until a truce was set. Then, the cylons vanished for decades. Rather than fearing that they could be evolving -which, in fact, they were- humans lived carelessly for years. Eventually, the cylons return and unchain a simultaneous deadly attack on all 12 colonies. When humans try to counterattack, it turns out that cylons have broken their defenses and penetrated their computer networks -with the help of Number 6, a new human-looking cylon model who had not much trouble fooling Dr Gaius into letting her reprogram his defense code-. Some humans, though, escape devastation. Most of them are the crew of BG, which has no network because commander Adama hates security breaches. Realizing that they have not much to do against cylons, they decide to flee in search of a place where they can start anew. However, cylons -now believing to be God's hand to erase His previous error: humanity- still have an agenda and letting humans escape is not in it. Besides, there's limited water and food supply, political tension and at least 12 human-looking cylon models that are mixed with the surviving crew.

Good plot, nice characters and pretty spaceships :)

Battlestar Galactica site

Now that the arrival of another niece is nigh, a post about the one niece is called. Hey, Clara, cheers from auntie Cris! :)

So this is a quick watercolor sketch I did from Mexico, back when I travelled there last year. I definitely need to go back and see Merida asap!


A Mexico rough watercolor skectch

So I finally got to the Great Wall after all these years of playing TRII ...

El Ultimo Caton (M. Asensi) Not bad, but very, very predictable. It is clearly written as a movie script, but fairly well documented and easy to read.
It focuses on three very different persons charged by the Vatican with the task of finding a strange sect known as the staurofilax who are stealing all relics involving pieces of Jesus' cross. Their only clue is the dead body of a member of the sect who died in a plane crash and had several strange cross-like scars etched in the body. Soon, they will discover that the mystery is related to Dante's Divine Comedy and that they are bound to walk through the nine circles of the Purgatory before reaching their goal. My only regret is that I did not manage to sympathize
with the main characters. A 7.5/10 would do.

I've also re-read Terry Pratchett's Eric in the plane back from Tenerife, because of the circles of Hell, and all. I give it (again) a 9.5/10 as to most Pratchett's books. Some random quotes of the book:

"The trouble is that things never get better, they just stay the same, only more so."

"Rincewind had] looked Death in the face many times, or more precisely Death had looked him in the back of his rapidly-retreating head head many times..."

"The badge said: "My name is Urglefloggah, Spawn of the Pit and Loathly Guardian of the Dread Portal: How May I Help You?"

Plus, Prometheus' torture :)

Rincewind: "What's going on? What's happening to him?"
Azaremoth: "I don't know what he done, but when I first come here his punishment was to be chained to that rock and every day an eagle would come down and peck his liver out. Bit of an old favourite, that one."
Rincewind: "It doesn't look as though it's attacking him now."
Azaremoth: "Nah. That's all changed. Now it flies down every day and tells him about its hernia operation. Now it's effective, I'll grant you, but it's not what I'd call torture."

This is the last movie I've seen and I must say that I did not like it very much. Pretty booooring. Fights are okay, specially the first one with the drums, but we are so used to Matrix and Hong-Kong like combats that this is not enough for a film to be interesting anymore. The plot is a very simple and predictable love story with only a few surprises. I liked "Hero" more and found that one slow as well! I think I'll stick to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" a little longer.

Safe bet! I think I figured out all major Oscars this year, so I had already prepared a little sketch of the best animation film for the occasion. Isn't The Incredibles the best superhero film ever!

Has been, of course, Puss in Boots, who looks just like my Angora cat. No award for Shrek, but he has the cutest look!

All the way up the Piramide de la Luna (Moon Pyramid), with a nice view of the Calzada de los muertos (Road of the dead)!

Sunset at Xochicalco, Morelos. You won't see that smile at the office, though!

This book, by C. Ruiz Zafon, was an unexpected Xmas gift from my mom. It tells the story of a boy who finds a book of a completely unknown writer hidden in a secret library. He reads it that very same night and, after that, things start to become quite strange for him, as a wide and mostly weird variety of characters begin to move around the book. Almost 600 pages, interesting and easy to read, but no surprise -for me at least- in the storyline. I sort of figured everything out in the first few chapters and was expecting the unexpected until the very end, which, in fact, never happens. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

Ok, I've just seen possibly the funniest Kim Possible episode thus far: "Oh Boyz". I'm not telling anything, better go and watch it yourself. Just, on a quick note, Shego is possibly the most expressive cartoon character ever and Sr Senior Jr strongly reminds me of someone I know quite well ... :D

So this is what I've watched this weekend! I've read some Hellblazer comics now and then and as far as I go, I think that "Dangerous Habits" was a good storyline to make a movie both for the comic fans but also for the general public. Rather than a horror movie, though, this one is an action flick. The Hellblazer ambient was pretty well caught and Keanu Reeves did it okay (even though he was not as disgusting as Constantine sometimes is and he was basically a good guy -which Constantine obviously is not-) Gabriel and Papa Midnite were cool and even though Chas was a bit out of character, he fitted all right. All in all, I liked the movie a lot. Plus, there is yet no Weisz's movie I haven't liked! :)

So this is pretty much what I watched this weekend. I've liked all Eastwood's movies, specially those directed by him, but I think Million Dollar Baby has become my favorite one. It does not need excess to become a touching film and it caught me from the very beginning. Despite its more than 2 hours length, it has a fast pace and is well tied even though it has clearly 3 different parts. I'm not commenting much about the plot because I expect a lot of people will be watching this. However, I'll say that I don't think the film would have worked the same without Hillary Swank. Amazing that the first rol I watched her play was in that horrible Buffy movie! I'm fairly confident now that she is in for her second Oscar and, as in "Boys don't Cry", her work is worth it. Eastwood will more likely go for Best Movie, but I'm not so sure about the actor one, not that he doesn't deserve it, but who knows with Hollywood? I'd say this is a perfect movie: ten out of ten.

P.S. Well, I also watched Azumi on DVD. If you like swordfight and east movies, this film is definitely for you. Don't expect much of the plot, but there's action enough to compensate.

At least, in their summer, around February. This is a watercolor sketch of Piha beach, one of the most famous ones in the West Coast of Aoteaora, from my visit back in 2002. Too bad it's so far from Spain!!

Leaving aside the fact that I would not have chosen Gardner to play the rol (Patricia Velazquez or Claudia Black would have been more likely), I'd not say that the film was a dissapointment, but simply because it was what I expected. I mean, I did not like it. Elektra was too soft and most of the film she was out of character. How come a cold blooded assassin meets a random girl and becomes a mother all in 10 minutes time? No way. At the beginning of the film, Gardner does a great Elektra, anyway. Should have kept her in that line. But, of course, an american movie about a bad guy would not work, would it? Save your money or go watch again "The Incredibles", boys and girls!

I've loved every extra minute of the extended edition, even though I'd still missed some stuff. Maybe an EEE (Extra Extended Edition) in a future would do, as long as I can spare a couple of days to watch the three films in a row.
BTW, does Eowyn rules in Pelenor! Here goes a watercolor sketch I did on TTT