I Rebel (Not a film review)

(If you have yet to watch the original trilogy, then please don't read this. Tons of spoilers here. But then, again, if you haven't watch the original trilogy, I'm sure you are not a Star Wars fan and this post has nothing to do with you.

If you are a Star Wars fans but unfortunately still not able to watch Rogue One due to circumstances, I share your pain and I'm so sorry for you. There are no spoilers here, unless you haven't watch the trailers. Well, then again, if you haven't watch the Rogue One trailers, I'm sure you are not really a fan and this post has nothing to do with you either)

If you grow up watching the original trilogy, THIS is the prequel that you actually wanted. (Well, maybe "prequel" is now such a bad word for Star Wars fans, Disney decided to use "spin-off" instead of "prequel" in all their marketing efforts). Rogue One ends a mere 10 minutes before the opening of the original Star Wars movie. It gives more depth and strength to Star Wars (those younger generations call it "Episode IV: A New Hope"), it makes me appreciate Star Wars more, it gives more weight on that opening crawl that caught our attention almost 40 years ago......If you always wonder about the exhaust port, the lack of Rebel Alliances as you grow older, Rogue One gives you the answers.

With "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....." and not following by the iconic opening crawl, we fans were transported into something familiar but different.

First of all, there's no John Williams. It is not a Star Wars movie without John Williams. Period. (John, please live long and prosper). No, don't get me wrong, it is not that Michael Giacchino is not qualified, but John Williams IS part of Star Wars universe. (Luckily Giacchino still using the Imperial March and the cascading brass motifs).

Though Star Wars is always about "war" but Rogue One is the real war movie in the Star Wars universe. The final battle shows the real capability of Gareth Edwards. The stakes are higher, its battles are more violent and militaristic. The scope of the mass casualties incurred in ground and air assaults makes us cry for every unsung heroes in human history. The final battle makes Rogue One a Star Wars story worth telling.

Though I really enjoy watching Rogue One (it made me so excited that I have to do the original trilogy + The Force Awaken marathon a few hours after watching it), and I'm sure it will always be included in my Star Wars Marathon (be in original trilogy marathon or full marathon), it lacks of the joyous spark between characters that defines the original trilogy. Most of the new characters in this movie seems interesting but underutilized (except for K-2SO). Worse still, they don't spark the kind of chemistry between Luke, Leia, and Han, or between Rey, Finn and Poe. Well, they are not Hayden-Christensen-and-Natalie-Portman kind of bad chemistry, but you don't fall in love with the ensemble. The way they interact on screen make you suspect that they are not friends off screen.

Rogue One is darker and grimmer, but it is still a nostalgia piece to Star Wars fans. And by now, I'm sure you already know that Darth Vader is in Rogue One. If Darth Vader used to give you nightmares as a kid, wait until you see Rogue One! I am sure thousands of Star Wars fans secretly cried tears of joy! If you only knew the power of the Dark Side! Darth Vader alone worth the price of the ticket. So Star Wars fans, if you are still skeptical, don't be. Go watch Rogue One NOW!

我是不是Star Wars粉丝?

朋友见我天天换Facebook Profile Picture，为Rogue One倒数，忍无可忍，问我“你究竟有多爱这部电影啊”？

这个很酷，有没有？

说来话长，三十多年来我长期被这部电影“熏陶”（我第一次看Star Wars，应该是叔叔租VHS回来，那时我还没入幼稚园，应该是四五岁左右吧），再加上我是家里老大，在外婆家也是老大，几十年来“骗”了一班小瓜和我一起成为Star Wars fans，一起疯狂。

以前在Friendster写了一堆与Star Wars有关的blog（当然，现在寻不回了），把我的blog搬到Blogger后其实也写了不少：

为了‘刺激’薇薇
最令人信赖的Darth Vader
Adidas Darth Vader
The Empire Gives Back
天行者
I Know
No, I am Your Father
The Imperial March
Do, or do not, there is no try
Why I Can Relate to Sheldon Cooper - Star Wars Fans
The Happiest Place On Earth
May the 4th, 2013
May the 4th be with You, 2014
May the Fourth be with You, 2015

去年，我百忙中还是抽空看了首场The Force Awakens，还和妹妹各打扮成Luke和Leia。看了半夜场出来仍然兴奋莫名，回到家还吃夜宵（半夜四点的还算夜宵吗？）才睡觉。六点半起床照样去上班，只是那阵子太忙，反而没时间给The Force Awakens写观后感什么的。我弟弟说不可思议，我也这么认为。

那时候我们隔了这么久终于有机会进戏院看Star Wars，再加上是首场，戏院里全是爱看Star Wars同仁，拿着light saber的，穿起jedi robe的，打扮成Darth Vader的，穿着Star Wars t shirt的…… 当音乐响起，或Millennium Falcon出场了，或是老朋友们回来了……一大群互不认识的人在戏院里拍手、欢笑、流泪……那种情绪，很难形容。

而我究竟是不是Star Wars粉丝呢？我个人觉得不是（你看人家都干些什么）。

我没有接触Star Wars expanded universe、没有玩Star Wars video games/online games、我还没拥有Lego Millennium Falcon / Death Star、即使到了三藩市我也没特地到Lucas Film Headquarters走一趟、没硬闯Skywalker Ranch、我没和人家争执“who shot first”……

我顶多是偶尔买几件Star Wars t shirt穿穿、偶尔买些小玩具啦monopoly啦、我分得清哪首音乐是给哪位要角、听到Force Theme有时候会偷偷红了眼眶、我想要到Tunisia和Skellig Islands看看、我幻想某一天可以参加真的Star Wars Marathon、没事在家会来个“Star Wars Marathon”……

我，没有很爱Star Wars啦……

May the Fourth be with You

Because coincidentally today is a replacement holiday, and because I have 2 toys awaiting in my drawer dying to celebrate May the 4th, of course I planned for something too when everyone in the Star Wars universe is excited.

First, I started with an easy one as warm up. Though totally not challenging, it is REAL fun to start my day with this.

Master Yoda had an easy win

After having some fun photo session with Master Yoda, I started the second project. First of all, this 3D puzzle is not easy, secondly, I CANNOT read Japanese! Luckily all schematic diagram is the same so I could pick up the pace after first few pieces.

















Sometimes it involved finding the correct pieces, sometimes I have to roll the pieces on pen so that I could get the roundness I want, sometimes it tried to kill me with all the tiny bends holes.

Patiently(of course, “Patience you must have”), pieces by pieces, parts by parts, I built my Millennium Falcon while waiting for Han Solo and Chewie to come home :)

May the 4th be with You

 

我深信，正义必定会获得最后的胜利！

May the 4th

We siblings are crazy Star Wars fans. So, even though tomorrow is The Day to be Remembered, we still must find time for our Star Wars Day celebration.

Isn't this the coolest siblings group photo? :)

Why I Can Relate to Sheldon Cooper - Star Wars Fans

I am not as smart, I am not as nerd, I am not as blunt, I am not as socially awkward as he does, but yes, I do think I can relate to Sheldon Cooper. (hopefully I am not 1/10 as arrogant as he is). He is just the extreme version of many of us.....

I have a lot to say, about why I can relate to Sheldon Cooper. However, instead of starting to explain myself, I would like to start with one simple crazy reason: Star Wars Fans.

If you want to know how we siblings trigger, discuss and execute our year-end-Star-Wars-Marathon, the enthusiasm level is probably almost like this:

"May the 4th" be with you!! :)



Why I Can Relate to Sheldon Cooper:

• Star Wars Fans
• The Need of Perfect TV Screen
• Being Accurate
• Hate Dressing Up
• Acoustics Sweet Spot

Behind The Scene

It is hard not to plan at least a hint of Hollywood in your itinerary when you visit Los Angeles.

Hence, even I'm not a big fan of theme parks, I can't help but allocating one full day of my precious West Coast moment to "Universal Studios". We went there early, when the park just open. Walking from the car park to the theme park through CityWalk is a pleasant experience. We did have great time doing window shopping and per-decide which shops to go after we are done with the theme park.

Before we visited the park, we imagined there will be long queue everywhere and hence we have planned our strategy very well. We have only 3 must-do in the theme park: Transformers: The Ride-3D, Studio Tour, and WaterWorld. 

We heard the Transformers ride in Singapore is super hot so we decided to run all the way to lower lot once we get into the park, focus on Transformers ride, and tackle the rest one by one.

To our surprise, there's no queue at all. We didn't even have to wait in the line. We walked in to the building and got on the first car we saw, and we had the ride! Well, it was actually an awesome ride. It is amazing how real the 3D technology can become. I salute to all those have contributed their effort in making this so enjoyable!

Even I am not a fan of Transformers, still, how can I not take photos of Optimus Prime? :)

Now we learn that Universal Studio is not half as crowded as Disneyland, we were so relax!! We changed our plan and decided to take a few more rides at the lower lot before we go for studio tour.

Well, in this case, I MUST go to Jurassic Park! Watching Jurassic Park in the cinema 20 years ago (yes! it was almost 20 years ago!!) is one of those memories that stay vividly in my brain. I remembered my uncle and all the cousins went to cinema in Sunshine Square for this show. It was mind-blowing then with all the computer-generated imagery. I remembered how we screamed and laughed, and I remembered how scared we were during the build-up to the appearance of the T-Rex, with the water vibrating in the glass on the car's dashboard. Oh, and that is the first time I learned the word Velociraptor, and I love the idea of having smart-ass creature as vallain in box-office movies :)

During the beginning of the ride, it is quite relaxing and I can still manage to take some nice photos of smiling dinosaur with my handphone. However, the tension built up, and I have to hold the seat so tight and shouting non-stop during the treacherous drop at the end. We ended up all wet! But loving it!











The little girl then insisted to take the mummy ride. I think it was quite boring based on my previous experience. So, while she went for the ride, I took some time to visit the NBC Universal Experience. I really think there are rooms for improvement for this little museum. The props and costumes are very limited, and I think the visitors can hardly feel connected / excited at all.

Embarrassingly, I was more excited with the stand up cutouts of the Apollo 13 crew than visiting the NBC Universal Experience.










Oh, and how can I not trying to hi-5 with Iron Man?

My favorite experience of the park is of course the Studio Tour. Though this is my second visit, I still enjoy go behind the scene, exploring Hollywood's most famous backlot of movie studio, I still love how everyone shouts when The Jaws appear, I still cannot believe how a small Spanish town can have a flash flood in minutes, and I am still very excited to see THE DeLorean from Back to the Future! This time, the Studio Tour experience is even cooler with the King-Kong 360 3D. Peter Jackson made this so believable that my heart actually pounded everytime the T-Rex came near us.

Entrance to the coolest ride - King Kong 360 3D

 
Another pleasant surprise is The WaterWorld. Even when I was the fan of Kevin Costner, I never love the movie. But the stunts and actions that they planned in this show is great and fun! The fact that an actual small aeroplane flew in is fascinating :)

Concluded the visit

 

Due to there were basically very few visitors on the day we visited Universal Studio, we actually finished all the rides and shows that we wanted-to and those we never-planned-to, much earlier than we expected. We then spent our time shopping for souvenirs at the CityWalk and the little girl had her first ever Taco Bell as dinner.














As if we didn't have enough dose of Hollywood, we continued our journey at Hollywood Walk of Fame and The Grauman's Chinese Theater, a must-do for tourist around the world. I was not thrilled since there were no actual stars at sight, but I still love taking photos with the Star Wars folks :)

Other posts for this trip:

在美国十五天的流水帐

贴士的尴尬

食量的苦恼

旧金山

金门桥

Pacific Coast Highway

为了Julia Child

The Happiest Place on Earth

Behind the Scene

Pilgrim of an Olympic Fan

The Birth Place of California

Shamu

Halloween Costumes at SeaWorld

凤凰城

恋恋红石

How I Got Shrunk

My Route 66

Hoover Dam without Transformers

Sin City

小心熊出没

甦醒的大熊

Farewell to USA

The Happiest Place On Earth

This is my 3rd visit to a Disneyland. First in California, second in Hong Kong, and here I am, back in California Disneyland again.

I am not so keen of re-visiting this place. One have learnt too much truth to actually think that this place is magical. When you see Chips and Dale walking around, I bet you are not as excited as the kids as you know someone is inside, and that someone may not even love chipmunks.

I really wish to spend more time exploring LA. However, since I have promised the little girl if she accompany me to US, I will accompany her to the theme parks, so here we are, taking photos with Mickey and friends as everyone does.

Well, based on what I said earlier, you may think I wouldn't really enjoy myself in this theme park. Haha! you are so wrong! I love every moment of it! How could you not fall in love with the happiest place on earth? Laughters are everywhere, the kids are putting smile on everyone's face, the aura in this place is pure happiness.

To ensure we don't regret in the future,we decided to get ourselves a USD125/pax park-hopping-1-day-ticket. Our first target is the Car Land at California Adventure Land. Unfortunately the Radiator Spring Racers was broken and the FASTPASS were concluded for the day early in the morning! Well, still, Car Land is a great place since I love Radiator Spring. I even met Mater and it's fun! (We did came back to check for Radiator Spring Racers later in the afternoon and the queue was 2.5hours long. Sigh...... I don't have time for this.)

We then got ourselves enough dosage of 3D/4D, roller coaster, and got ourselves real wet too before we head to Disneyland Park. 

For Disneyland Park, we have only one thing each in our must do list: I MUST be on the Star Tours while Ching Ching will not leave Disneyland without the Space Mountain.
Our strategy was to get the FASTPASS of these 2 rides first, then have some shopping before come back to these rides later.













After getting our Star Tours FASTPASS, we ran to Space Mountain only to find out that the FASTPASS were concluded for the day too! We were so disappointed! The queue was so long and I don't think I would like to spend one or two hours standing in the queue doing nothing in Disneyland. The Disneyland worker taking care of the Space Mountain FASTPASS must have felt our "pain", (or we must be just too cute to be ignore :p), he decided to show us a magic, and pulled out two overdue FASTPASS from behind of my ears, and let us walk down the Space Mountain FASTPASS lane immediately! So touched!

As a die hard Star Wars fans and a person that grow up with Disney cartoons and movies, Star Tours is like a dream come true for me. The ride itself got nothing to shout about (3D / 4D rides no longer impress me nowadays, a bit boring actually :p), however, walking in the queue while "boarding" felt like boarding on a space ship that got something to do with the Rebel Alliance, besides, R2D2 and C3PO are talking (and beep-ing) non-stop, assisting you during the boarding. After the ride, you will come to a store selling everything about Star Wars, from T-shirts to models, from  light sabers to phone covers, caps, mugs, pins, stationaries, lego, jackets etc. The Force is strong in here. I almost went crazy!
Since I do not have specifically any other rides in mind, I spent almost an hour in the store admiring all these cute figures and got Wei, En and myself some cute T-shirt.

Having fun with Mickey-Ears-R2D2-hat

I'm having Jedi training 

After having fun with everything Star Wars, of course, we still find time for pirates and wandering around the park. Our last itinerary in Disneyland was the parade at Main Street U.S.A. (no fireworks on the day of our visit). After the parade, we rushed back to California Adventure Land for World of Colour. There were already a lot of people gathering at Paradise Pier. We have to squeeze ourselves in to get a spot that both of us at least can see the Mickey's Fun Wheel. (Make sure you got yourself a FASTPASS for better viewing location. We were too busy having fun, forgot to collect our FASTPASS for World of Colour and ended up got to stand at some lousy location).

When the show started, everyone was awed. The vibrant lights illuminated fountains dance to mesmerizing music. The classic characters of Disney and Pixar appear magically on the mist screen. That's really a magical, vibrant 25 minutes! Don't miss this!

Other posts for this trip:

在美国十五天的流水帐

贴士的尴尬

食量的苦恼

旧金山

金门桥

Pacific Coast Highway

为了Julia Child

The Happiest Place on Earth

Behind the Scene

Pilgrim of an Olympic Fan

The Birth Place of California

Shamu

Halloween Costumes at SeaWorld

凤凰城

恋恋红石

How I Got Shrunk

My Route 66

Hoover Dam without Transformers

Sin City

小心熊出没

甦醒的大熊

Farewell to USA