Why are we taking responsibility for your mistakes?

Saw this article this morning and while I applaud the writer for his honesty, the subject matter still infuriated me. The article is here; http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-chilling-realisation-of-how-close-i-might-have-come-to-rape-20101012-16hxg.html

The most important part is this point: "I was driving one afternoon when I heard a legal discussion on the radio about definitions of rape. It was mentioned that if a man took advantage of a woman who was too drunk to know what she was doing, then this would fall into the broader definition of rape. That is, if I'd gone on with things, I may have been liable to be charged."

That is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, and in my opinion it is a terrible flaw in the legal system. In Campbell's (the writer) case, the girl while being totally wasted, was coming onto him. If they then had sex, it would've clearly been consenting, no matter how drunk she is... it's not like she was drunk and denying his advances... she's actually doing the advancing.

Dictionary.com defines rape as "the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse," or "any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person." The first definition is already rather sexist, as rape doesn't exclusively apply to women, so the second definition would be more correct. In Campbell's case, he wouldn't have been forcing anything upon her, so she can't say he raped her. He wouldn't even have the intention of raping her, as he would simply be receiving her advances.

Then what if he had been so drunk and out of it, and they ended up having sex... and he woke up the next day regretting what happened and felt that he had been taken advantage of? Society in general wouldn't recognise that, and just assume he was making an excuse... and all of this is because we males are painted as sexual predators, so it is always the guy's fault and the girls get a free pass.

In reality, the whole thing is the girl's fault. She was the one who decided to get drunk out of her head, and she should deal with the consequences of that. If someone drink drives and crashes into someone because of it, then it's the drink driver's fault... you wouldn't expect the other drivers on the road to be like "oh, that driver is drunk, we should get out of his way." In those cases, the drink driver is blamed as it was his/her fault for driving under influence and not arranging for other methods of transportation ahead of time. Why should it be any different for a girl who gets drunk and ends up sleeping with some random?

I always hear whinging about how girls want to be treated like equals, but when it comes to a lot of things... it seems really one-sided to me. This particular scenario is no exception. If you do something stupid, you are the only one to blame.

Anime Review: Queen's Blade

If you are after a good story, you are probably looking at the wrong anime. If you are looking for fan service however... this anime is full of it.

Queen's Blade is a major tournament, which decides who will be the next queen. The main character of the story is Leina, who is the middle daughter of Count Vance. She is supposed to be the heir, but she doesn't want to take the position and runs off to enter the Queen's Blade tournament. As far as the story is concerned... it is pretty ordinary, and quite typical/predictable, but thats not really what you would watch this anime for =P

The other characters include;

Listy - self-claimed "chivalrous thief of the wasteland". Her primary goal is money, but it is in order to feed an orphanage. She is the first person Leina meets, and Leina looks up to her like an older sister and idol.

Tomoe - a warrior priestess from the East. After her fellow priestesses were slaughtered by an assassin clan, she vowed to win the Queen's Blade tournament in order to protect her homeland, which is in turmoil.

Shizuka - a compansion of Tomoe. She was the head of an assassin clan, but she left in order to serve Tomoe after having being defeated by her.

Echidna - an elven mercenary, who is extremely experienced in combat. She is the favourite to win the tournament. She has a very strong, but strange interest in Leina. She frequently makes comments suggesting that they should sleep together. The most bizarre thing about her, is that she has a pet snake that wraps around her groin area to serve as underwear (although it attacks her enemies as well).

Claudette - she is known as the 'Lightning General', and is Leina's adoptive older sister. She is very strong, and as her name suggests... she uses lightning-based attacks. She seems very cold towards Leina, and one of her primary aims is to bring Leina back to the castle so she can resume her duties as the heir.

Elina - the youngest daughter of the Vance family. She is the captain of the imperial guard, and has a major sister-complex towards Leina. I find her to be one of the more amusing characters, as she frequently tries to do anything intimate with Leina when given the chance, much to Leina's dismay.

Nanael - an angel from the heavens. The angels serve as 'broadcasters' of the Queen's Blade tournament, which everyone can view from the sky. She is very selfish and ambitious, so she's very amusing to watch.


There is a huge cast of characters, but these are the most prominent characters. I would say this anime is very borderline hentai. There are no actual sex scenes or anything, so it can't really be classified as hentai, but the maker of the anime/manga certainly pushes the boundaries as far as he could. I find it very unlikely that any girls would like to watch it (unless u enjoy watching these kinds of anime), but it's definitely made for the guys. I'd give it a 5/10 for storyline, and 10/10 for fan service... so an overall rating of 7.5/10.

I'll leave u with a nice fan-service pic of my favourite character, Airi. She is 1 of the 3 'demons' who serve the Swamp Witch. As suggested by the pic, she is a scythe-wielding maid, and she is also a ghost. In order to maintain her energy, she must suck the life-force out of people, which she does by kissing them (which seems pretty awesome to me =P).

Random Thoughts: How to...?

I wasn't really planning to open myself up, but I guess thats what blogs are for. Anyway, a bit of history about me... when I was in high school there was this particular girl I liked very much. I have liked many girls throughout my life, but this particular girl would probably be the first girl I fell in love with, although she didn't feel the same about me. Despite getting rejected by her, I never really got over her... and even if I were to just randomly bump into her somewhere, or am somehow reminded of her... all the feeling I had for her would just resurface and I'd just get miserable because I know nothing will happen.

So anyways, fast forward to near the present... this same girl got married very recently. When ppl hear about things like this, they will tell u that u should be happy for that person. I see this as a dilemma, in that how can I be happy for someone if their happiness is the root cause of me being unhappy? If she is happy, then sure... good for her, but I don't see a need for me to be happy for her. I'm not really sure how I should perceive the "u should be happy for them" statement, because it's not something u would say to cheer someone up, yet it seems like sometimes ppl will try to use it that way. Well thats all I got for now... peace.

Movie Review: Robin Hood

There have been many films based on Robin Hood. This Robin Hood is the latest one, starring Russell Crowe. As everyone probably knows, Robin Hood is an old English tale about a man who robs from the rich and gives it to the poor, and his accompanied by his merry band. This movie however, takes a step back and looks at Robin's story before he became the infamous outlaw.

At the start of the movie, Robin Longstride is serving King Richard's 3rd crusade against the French, as the leader of the archers. King Richard is slain in combat, and a convoy is heading back to England to return the Crown. Robin of Locksley is in charge of the convoy, but they were ambushed by the French who are led by an English traitor. Robin's group by chance, run into the ambush and help fight the French off. Locksley's dying wish was for Robin to return his sword to his father. Thus Robin Longstride takes on the name Robin of Locksley, and his group dress up as knights so that they can return to England. From there the story unfolds, as the French prepare to make their counter-attack.

There were a lot of mixed opinions among my friends and other people who have seen the movie. I personally thought it was a good decision to steer away from the mainstream storyline, and I found it interesting to see events before the actual Robin Hood story. Although, I guess I can't be sure whether that was the actual story, as there are other adaptations where Robin is actually the knight of Locksley, and not just pretending. I felt there was enough action in the movie, although others thought there wasn't enough... I don't think movies should be too overloaded with action though, otherwise it's going to have no storyline at all.

The only things I didn't like were that Robin very rarely used his bow, which is supposed to be his signature weapon, and the other thing is I felt that the final battle was a little one-sided. When you see the final battle, in all honesty... the English could've just sat there and wiped out the French with their archers... there was a very unnecessary cavalry charge. Therefore, I felt that the final battle wasn't very well planned from a director's point of view.

Overall, I think the movie was fairly good. I'd give it a 7/10 rating.

wtf

Been a while since I've made a post, but I'll try to get back into the swing of things again when I got time.

Anyways, something happened this morning that I want to get off my chest. I was driving to work and I was in the city kind of area at Parramatta. There was a car on the left hand side of the road coming out of a drive-way. He comes out despite me almost approaching him, and fully cuts me off. So I horn him for being a moron and had to brake pretty hard. Turns out the car was an unmarked cop. He swerves close to me so that his car is fairly close to me and is full yelling, although I couldn't hear him. I just kept going by my business and he buggered off.

What puzzles me is that he seems to think hes above the law and is expected to be given right of way even though he is turning right. If cops are supposed to watch out for us citizens driving recklessly, then perhaps they should do so themselves by example. If he had a siren on, that would obviously be another story... but he didn't. At that point in time, I could not believe that part of my taxes would be going to cops like him.

Movie Review: Clash of the Titans

On the weekend I went to watch Clash of the Titans with a bunch of friends. The movie is in 3D, but I didn't really notice the 3D aspect of it that much... it was more noticeable in 1 of the ads for some dancing movie that I forgot the name of.

The story is based on the Greek mythology of Perseus. I actually looked up Perseus on wikipedia afterwards and found that the storyline was amazingly accurate on most things, and I find mythology quite fascinating. However, the actual storyline isn't really that great in the movie as I felt it was a bit linear. It was pretty much "we need to go to X" then they reach it and find out that "we now need to kill Z", and its all done without any plot twists or any real dramas.

Perseus was found by a fisherman as a baby inside a coffin floating in the ocean with his mother dead inside. The fisherman raised Perseus as his own, and the story fast-forwards to when hes a young man. One day, they find soldiers knocking down a giant statue, and Perseus' father says that the soldiers are declaring war on the gods. After the statue falls into the ocean, flying demons rise out of the water and attack the soldiers. The demons then combine and form to make Hades, god of the underworld. He dives into the ocean, destroying the boat that Perseus' family is on. Perseus manages to escape, but his family are unable to escape and drown with the boat. The distraught Perseus is later found by soldiers of Argos, who take him to the palace. The king and queen of Argos are rebelling against the gods, and Hades is sent to deal with them. Hades announces that he will unleash the Kraken in 10 days, unless they sacrifice Andromeda the princess of Argos. Perseus is later discovered to be a demi-god, and the only hope that Argos has in defeating the Kraken, and thus he begins a journey to find a way to defeat it.

While the story is ordinary, I still enjoyed the mythological aspect of the movie. I would give it a rating of 7/10 for that reason.

Anime Review: Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is an ongoing anime, and relatively new. It is about a world where magic is common practice, and many guilds for mages have been created. Fairy Tail is one of those guilds, and there are many others including 'dark guilds' for evil mages. So far the episodes have been mostly introductory, explaining the main characters' pasts and a few adventures take place. It is mostly a comedy, but it adds a lot of fighting elements into it... making it quite similar to the Soul Eater anime. The story seems to have begun to pick up, with the more recent episodes based on a rival guild attacking Fairy Tail.

There are a few main characters;

Lucy Heartfilia - A cute, busty, blonde haired girl. She is a Celestial Mage, who summons spirits from Celestial Keys. The most powerful keys are the Zodiac Keys (based on the star signs). She is the newest member of Fairy Tail, after joining early in the anime. She is very cheerful, but tends to suffer a lot for comedic purposes (usually due to something Natsu, Gray or Happy does).

Natsu Dragneel - He is a Fire Mage, although he uses it as mostly an enhancement to his fighting (such as making his fists burn with fire), and some projectile moves. He was raised by a dragon named Igneel, who he learnt his fire magic from before he joined the guild. He is constantly at odds with Gray, and he also desires to beat Erza in a fight. He suffers from an extreme weakness of travelling, where he gets completely sick when riding any form of transportation.

Gray Fullbuster - He is an Ice Mage that is always at odds with Natsu ever since they were young. He has an interesting habit of taking off his clothes, which even surprises himself when someone points it out. You find out a lot more about his past and why he takes his clothes off later in the anime.

Erza Scarlet - She is an Armour Mage, with an assortment of different armour and weapons that she can switch to using her 'ex-quip' ability. Among the main characters she is the strongest, and one of the top mages of the guild. She seems to have a huge amount of authority in the guild, and is quite close to the guild master. She is the one who is consistently breaking up the fights between Natsu and Gray through sheer fear, as she is quite hot-tempered and fierce. The entire guild treads carefully around her because of this.

Happy - He is a blue cat with the ability to use magic, which so far is to create wings on his back and fly. His flying ability is the only form of transportation that doesn't make Natsu sick. He is very close with Natsu, as you find out that Natsu had raised Happy since he was a baby. He is very childish, makes a lot of random comments (some of which are stupid, but all in good humour), loves eating fish and also tends to say "aye" a lot.

There are a lot of other characters, but they are not as prominent as these 5. The show is absolutely hilarious, and I really enjoy the magic fights. The story so far has been pretty decent, but I think it will get more interesting now that things are beginning to unravel. I'd give the show a rating of 10/10, as I can not find any flaws in the show at all. If you like good comedy, you should definitely check Fairy Tail out.

Below is a pick of the main characters from left to right; Natsu, Erza, Happy, Lucy and Gray

Movie Review: The Swordsman Trilogy

This series of movies are actually Chinese movies, which I had seen a long time ago when I was young. Clearly the best of the series, and also the most popular is Swordsman II which stars Jet Li. You could probably potentially just watch Swordsman II by itself, however it would make a whole lot more sense if you watch Swordsman I (although I didn't enjoy the first as much). The series is now considered a classic, and it renewed the popularity of old-style martial arts films. The fighting is the typical unrealistic type, with people able to jump many meters and also flying through the air while being able to keep yourself afloat by merely lightly stepping on thin tree branches. People also use supernatural powers, which I gather that the idea is they expel their 'chi', and it seems like the person gets hit by an invisible force.

The first film stars Sam Hui as Linghu Chong, who is a senior member of Mount Hua Sect. He is an easy-going guy, who loves alcohol but is also a very skilled swordsman. He is accompanied by Yue Lingshan, who is also a member of the Mount Hua Sect. She is the master's daughter, and has a crush on Linghu Chong. However, her tomboy ways cause Linghu Chong to think of her as just 1 of the other junior members and he calls her 'kiddo', although in Chinese it is also referring her to be a male. They get involved in a struggle to find the Sunflower Manual. The other parties involved include a Eunach General, and also the Sun Moon Sect. Linghu Chong at some point in the movie gets saved by the Sun Moon Sect, and the current leader Ren Yingying falls in love with him, although she tries not to show it much to the amusement of Lan Fenghuang (aka Blue Phoenix) who is her deputy. Whoever learns the secrets of the Sunflower Manual will apparently become the most powerful martial artist in the world, and this is important to understanding the second movie. The first movie also explains a lot of the character backgrounds to help understand the second movie. For example; it shows the significance of a particular song that is song very often and you find out why Linghu Chong cares so much about Ren Yingying.

The second film jumps forward a bit in the timeline (to my understanding). Also the cast for a lot of the characters has changed, which is obviously evident by Jet Li replacing Sam Hui and other changes. In this movie, a character named Dongfang Bubai (aka Asia the Invincible) has taken over the Sun Moon Sect and is conspiring with Japanese pirates. He has also mastered the secrets of the Sunflower Manual, however, in order to learn the secrets of the Sunflower Manual, he had to castrate himself, and his appearance became more feminine (eventually completely becoming a woman). This is why he is played by Brigitte Lin. Dongfang Bubai has imprisoned the previous leader of the Sun Moon Sect, and Linghu Chong attempts to find him.

The third film is kind of ordinary. It is based on Dongfang Bubai after the events of the second film, yet doesn't actually continue of the storyline of what happened at the end of the movie properly. I found the movie to be pretty dodgy and not very interesting, so I would recommend simply not watching it.

I would give the first movie a rating of 6/10, second movie 8.5/10, third movie 2/10. I recommend watching the first movie purely for the story background simply because it will make viewing the second movie a lot better. To be honest, I find the ending of the second movie to be a bit vague and wished the third movie continued on from where it left off. However, the movie itself was quite good and I tend to appreciate the classic movies a lot.

TV Review: Cougar Town

Been a while since I posted, so gonna try to start doing more. I had recently finished watching Cougar Town (first season), so I thought I'd share that first.

When Cougar Town was initially released, it brought back the popularity of 'cougars' in general... with radio shows doing special cougar-related segments and also being a fairly hot topic in the news. Cougar Town is a new comedy show starring Courtney Cox, who most people will know as Monica Gellar from Friends. She plays Jules Cobb, who is in her late 30s and recently divorced. She has a son named Travis, who she raised when she was very young and had to give up her college degree in the process. She is now a real estate agent and running a successful small business, and also trying to get back on the dating scene as well as trying to make up for the time lost in her 20s that were devoted to raising Travis. The first guy that Jules dates is a younger guy named Josh, which, hence the cougar story plot.

Jules' best friend is Ellie Torres, who is also her neighbour. She is a gossip queen and loves to witness drama. She is married to Andy Torres, and they have a baby boy named Stan. She is often at odds with Jules' assistant Laurie, who has very opposing views on how Jules should spend her time. While Laurie is more of a crazy party girl, Ellie is over that type of life and prefers a quiet night at home.

Andy is the stereotypical 'whipped' husband. He is also best friends with Bobby Cobb, who is Jules' ex-husband. Again, he is the stereotypical 'sheep' who follows Bobby around doing strange things. He also has a habit of spilling any gossip he knows to his wife Ellie, and the longer he keeps things a secret... the more he suffers trying to fight off the urge to tell Ellie about it.

Laurie works with Jules as her assistant, and is the main person getting Jules back on the dating scene. She is a fun-loving party girl and tries to influence Jules into her way of life.

Travis Cobb is Jules' 18 year-old son. He is often embarassed by Jules when she does strange things quite shamelessly. They however have quite a good relationship, which is often more like friends than mother and son.

Bobby Cobb is Jules' ex-husband. He is unemployed and lives on a boat. During his marriage with Jules, he was touring as a golfer although he wasn't successful. He is very easy-going and mostly just mucks around doing random stuff.

Finally, Grayson Ellis is another of Jules' neighbours and lives across the street. He is newly divorced, which Jules pointed out when she first meets him and tries to befriend him. However, he begins to date younger women which infuriates Jules because it is so easy for a divorced man to move on, while she has to struggle to try to find a new relationship.

In a way, the show has similarities to Desperate Housewives except with a smaller cast. There wasn't much of a story development in the first season, but it seemed to be a good introduction to all the characters and provides a lot of background. My favourite aspect of the show is the character named Barb Coman, who is a man-hungry cougar. She is very lascivious and quite shameless in showing it, and pretty much hits on any attractive looking guy she sees even if they are actually taken e.g. Jules' boyfriend Josh. The show has some good comedy, so I'm looking forward to seeing the next season, but I hope there is more plot in it. Overall I'd give the show a 7.5/10, and recommend it for anyone looking for a new comedy to watch.

News Watch: Drug Addict Refused Second Liver Transplant

You can read the article here: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6850483/dying-drug-addict-refused-second-liver-transplant/

So the basic facts of the story are:

1. 24 year old, mother of 2 children (aged 5 and 4)
2. refused second liver transplant
3. was a drug addict, which resulted in her neededing the first liver transplant
4. continued to use drugs after the first liver transplant

Now there are some conflicting issues here. Firstly, since she has been refused the transplant (well, to be put on the waiting list).. she only has 6 months left to live. How can we just let a mother of 2 children die, if there's something we can do about it? But then you have to consider that livers don't exactly grow on trees, hence why there is a waiting list for them. Not only that, but she already received a transplant beforehand, yet she still continued her destructive habit of abusing drugs. To me, that first transplant is already wasted, yet there is a big deal about her being refused a second one?

There are many people out there who need a transplant to survive. As far as I know, it is highly unlikely that all of them will receive a transplant. So I think she was quite lucky to receive her first one... let alone trying to get another. I'm not saying she deserves to die or anything... it takes a lot to say someone truely deserves to die (like a murderer who has no remorse)... but this is what almost made me vomit:

(Quote from the father, in the article) "She now has three to six months to live," he said. "We're very aware that if Claire goes back on the list it doesn't mean she's going to get one and it's not necessarily going to save her life. But everyone deserves another chance."

I truely believe everyone deserves another chance, but it is up to that person to make up for their mistake. In this case, she already got her second chance. She got the liver transplant, and yet she continued to endanger her health again. How many livers replacements does someone need until they finally break their habit? What about all those people still waiting for a liver who will also die if they don't get one? To my knowledge, it's already very difficult for drug addicts to be accepted to receive a transplant... probably the main reason she was able to get her first one, was that she has young children.

He said 19 liver transplants were carried out in WA last year, and three people died waiting for a new liver.

What about those 3 people who died while waiting for a liver? It would not be surprising if there will be a similar number this year. Is she more deserving to receive a second implant than those other people? I don't have a definite answer to that, but it is my opinion that transplants can not be wasted because of stupid reasons like the patient is a drug addict and still doesn't break the habit. I'm not saying it is easy to break an addiction, but you would think they would try really hard considering how fortunate she was to receive the donor liver.

I guess there might be other circumstances that caused the liver to fail, but the only information provided was the continued drug use, and inadequate rehabilitation... but to me, continuing drug use is just plain stupid, whether it caused the liver to fail or not. You should have the decency to try to do anything you can to prevent the liver from failing... first step would be to get rid of any bad drugs like heroin, and having your family ensure you stay away from it (i.e. they keep an eye on you).

Seems like they are going to see a specialist to try to do a live donation, via a family member, so I hope that works out for them, because things that have a very limited supply... need to be very carefully distributed.

Anime Review: Bleach

Bleach is one of the most popular animes/mangas out at the moment, although the anime is probably losing its popularity now. The reason is because there are so many fillers, because the manga is being written too slowly. However, the manga has no fillers so its still very popular.

Bleach is a story about a teenager named Kurosaki Ichigo (Kurosaki being the last name... since in Japanese you saw last name first, but it sounds retarded if you convert it to a proper English way of saying a name), who is able to see spirits. One day an evil spirit called a hollow, attacks his family. A shinigami (death god) named Rukia, comes to save Ichigo and exterminate the hollow. However, the course of the battle forces Rukia to transfer almost all of her powers to Ichigo, who then becomes a shinigami himself.

The shinigami dwell in a place called Soul Society, and they are trained to exterminate hollow and also to help lost spirits move on to Soul Society (so in a sense, its like heaven). The hollow live in a separate plane of existence called Hueco Mundo, and they are created when a soul has died for too long without having gone to soul society. Hollow consume spirits or each other in order to live and evolve. Thus they enter the human world when possible to hunt for food.

The story is set up into major arcs. The first is the Soul Society arc, which starts off with a major intro to the story background, and also to show some of the history behind the major characters. It also introduces an incredibly large cast of characters both from the human world, and Soul Society. There are far too many characters to explain, so I'll just focus in the primary ones from the human world:

Kurosaki Ichigo - as explained earlier, he gained shinigami powers from Rukia. He is an extremely stubborn person, who does everything in his power to protect his comrades (so typical of every anime... I get tired of those sorts of characters to be honest). He is the type that is hard to approach, and early on you find out that it's because his mother died when he was very young, and he blames himself for it (you'll see why). After the death os his mother, he changed from a bright young kid, to a bit of a lone wolf. This changes once he gets his shinigami powers and gets closer to the other characters.

Hollow Ichigo - I don't think theres actually an official name for this personality, but that's what I refer to him as. Hollow Ichigo is the hollow version of Ichigo that resides inside Ichigo's soul. He occasionally tries to take over Ichigo, to fight his enemies. He is far superior to Ichigo in terms of fighting ability, but is also a bit crazy... especially in battle where he'll become quite bloodthirsty.

Kuchiki Rukia - she is part of the Kuchiki family, which is a noble house in Soul Society. She likes to draw a lot for whenever she explains something (abysmally) much to the dismay of Ichigo. She teaches Ichigo the ways of a shinigami early on in the show. As a shinigami, she is very gifted at 'kidou' which is a shinigami's magic powers, and she usually uses a spell that fires a blue fireball.

Inoue Orihime - she is a classmate of Ichigo, and appears to have a crush on him but is too shy to admit it to him. She has inhumanly large breasts, which prompts some jokes like 'the nutrients that were supposed to go to her brain, went to her breasts instead' being the most common one, because she's pretty dumb a lot of the time. However, she is a very caring person and wants to do whatever she can to help. She manifests special powers that are unique to her, that gives her the ability to heal, create a magic shield, and also to attack (though she seldom uses her attack).

Yasutora Sado - sometimes known as 'Chad' because Ichigo calls him that. He is another classmate of Ichigo's. He is part mexican, so sometimes you will hear him refer to his grandfather in mexican, rather than in Japanese. He is very tall and well built, yet he is a very gentle person and dislikes resorting to violence. Like Orihime, he also gains unique powers, where his arm will transform into a strange armour, and it enables him to punch much harder than normal, and he can also fire off some sort of spirit blast.

Ishida Uryu - he is a descent of the Quincy clan, who were a group of humans that were able to manipulate spirit particles to form bow weapons. They used their powers to fight off hollow, but were annihilated by the shinigami. For this reason, Ishida bears a grudge against Ichigo, yet he still ends up helping him and seeming to become friends.


Rating - 8/10. The actual storyline is fantastic, especially when you get to the end of the Soul Society arc, however the fillers have ruined it for me generally speaking. The first filler wasn't too bad, because it began after the Soul Society arc and seemed to fit into the timeline reasonably ok... and it had some nice fight scenes. But the more recent ones which have been occurring during the Hueco Mundo arc, make absolutely no sense because the filler will begin right in the middle of the storyline. So it will be like... at the end of the episode, they're still fighting someone in Hueco Mundo... and then the next ep will start a random filler back in the human world. So it loses points for that... but I really enjoy the main storyline. If it wasn't for the fillers, I probably would've rated it a 10.

Below is a pic of Orihime. I didn't really have time to find a better one, so this will have to do.

Random Findings: Arthur Kade

I was listening to the radio yesterday as I usually do on my way to work, and there was an interview with a man named Arthur Kade. I haven't heard of him before, but he was introduced as the world's most arrogant man... so i thought this would be something interesting to hear.

The following info is taken from both what I heard in the interview + whats on wikipedia: Arthur Kade is an ex-financial adviser, who stopped in 2009 to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and model. He is very self-promoting, and appears like he would do anything to become famous. As previously mentioned, he is very arrogant and self-absorbed, yet he is also very honest about what he wants. This eventually led to the topic of the 'Kade scale', which is his own grading system that he uses to rate women. If a woman scores below a '6', it means he won't have anything to do with them, and that they're not worth his time.

As you can imagine, many female listeners were infuriated by someone who would be so proud to be shallow, and that if he were to come to Australia, no women would want to hook up with him. I find the last to be a bit of a stretch... I find it a bit annoying that some listeners try to speak out for all Australian women, and this is the case for a lot of things.

Despite those negative comments, he did receive some positive responses saying that its good that he is being honest about what he wants, and I think thats very true. I find it strange that many women are angered when a guy judges a girl by their looks, and expect that it should be a social norm to only look at someone's personality. First off, its pretty hypocritical in my opinion because there are girls who judge guys by their looks as well... its not just the guys judging girls. I myself have been rejected in the past because the girl thought I'm not good looking enough for her (its true anyway). It's probably reasonable to say that the majority of guys will judge a girl on looks, and the majority of girls judge a guy on his personality... but thats the point; everyone is different, and thus everyone wants different things. Thus some guys are very careful that they don't make it seem like they primarily care about looks, in case they offend the girls, when they really shouldn't have to be ashamed of it. For this reason, I actually applaud Arthur Kade on his honesty, despite the criticism he receives for it.

That is not to say I like the guy or that I admire him or anything. I still think he's a bit of a douche for loving himself so much, but it's good that he doesn't hide anything. I'm sure many guys encounter the dilemma of their girlfriend/fiance/wife asking them "does this dress make me look fat?" If they answer "no, you look great" she'll think he's lying or just saying that because it's what she wants to hear, or if they answer "yes it does" then the girl will get offended and get angry at him. Either way, it's a lose lose situation, and I think it's good that a guy like Kade can just speak his mind and not care.

TV Review: Lost

Lost has just returned for its final season (6). It has been a very long and epic story, and a lot has changed since it first began. It is the kind of story that creates questions, then answers it but only to create more questions. I like the way Lost reveals its story... it seems like they film whole sections, and then chop it up so that an episode will only reveal part of it... then a later episode will reveal the rest, and suddenly things make sense or you see things from a different perspective. It's a little hard to explain, but I think you will understand when you see it for yourself.

Lost begins with the main character Jack Shephard waking up in the middle of a jungle completely dazed. He finds that he has an open wound on his back, but can't stitch it up. As he makes his way through the jungle, he comes across a girl running past him. He gets her to stich him up, and then they hear screams for help. They follow the sounds to the beach, where the front half of a plane has crash landed and the survivors are struggling to get away to safety.

It turns out that the people on the beach are survivors of the Oceanic 815 plane crash, which was flying from Australia to L.A. The first season is mostly an introductory season, which tells the background stories of the main survivors. It also shows the basic survival stuff... like setting up a proper camp, salvaging things from the plane, hunting for food and water, etc. However, it's not as simple as just survive till rescue comes... there are no signs of any boats or rescue craft on the way, as normally they are able to track plane crashes. Also, on the first night... they encounter a mysterious 'monster' in the jungle, which make huge mechanical-like sounds. The monster makes an appearance throughout the seasons, but it's not until the later seasons that it becomes more prominent. The survivors also find out that they are not alone on the island, and they refer to them as 'the others'. Who the others are... is not certain until later on in the story, but it seems that they are kidnapping people for unknown reasons.

I'm going to briefly explain the backgrounds of the main characters. If you don't want anything spoilt at all, then feel free to skip it... but I don't think it really spoils anything, as you see all of this early on in season 1;

Jack Shephard - A gifted neurosurgeon, who becomes the leader and doctor of the survivors. He tends to everyone's health, and is quite a stubborn but caring person. He has issues with his father, who he felt pushed him very hard and never really acknowledged his abilities. His father had died prior to the flight, and he had gone to Australia to pick up his body to take it back to L.A for the funeral.

Kate Austen - She is a criminal, who was being escorted by a federal marshal back to L.A. She had killed her abusive stepfather and had been on the run. She is attracted to both Jack and Sawyer, which adds a love triangle into the story (what a naughty girl!)

John Locke - Normally referred to as 'Locke', he had previously been paralysed from the waist down, but miraculously healed when arriving on the island, and was able to walk again. He seems to be a man of faith, which was reinforced by the 'healing' of his paralysis. This causes him to clash with Jack, who is a man of science and is a bit of a realist. Locke had dreamed of being a hunter, but was unable to fulfill that due to his paralysis. On the island he is able to fulfill this dream, when he captured a wild pig.

Hugo Reyes - Commonly referred to as 'Hurley'. Prior to the flight, he was a lottery winner. He used a set of numbers that a man at a mental institution was constantly repeating. These are referred to as a special set of "numbers" which continues to be part of the storyline's mythology. After winning the lottery, Hurley started having constant bad luck, which started giving him paranoia. I guess crashing landing on a mysterious island didn't help him on that note either.

Jin-Soo Kwon - A Korean man, who doesn't speak English. He was from a family of fisherman, but he had ambitions to become more than that. He moves to the city and falls in love with Sun-Hwa, and they get married. However Sun's father allowed the marriage on the condition that Jin worked for him, and Jin soon finds out that the line of work Sun's father wanted him to do was that of a mob enforcer. On the island, his fisherman background comes into play and he becomes the primary fisherman for the survivors.

Sun-Hwa Kwon - Sun is the rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer. She had an affair prior to the flight, because Jin was growing distant due to the work that her father made him do. She had learnt English because she had planned to leave Jin by escaping to America. On the island, she pretends to not understand English because she is scared of Jin. They soon reconcile their marriage while on the island.

Sayid Jarrah - A former military communications office, and an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is haunted by his dark past and wants to get away from it. Despite doing so many terrible things, he is actually a good person, and he is filled with regret. He is very gifted with electronics, and he tries to establish radio communication to get rescue.

James "Sawyer" Ford - Usually just referred to as Sawyer. He was a confidance man (con-artist) prior to the crash. He was orphaned as a child, when his father killed his mother, and then committed suicide. The reason was because another man named Sawyer had conned his mother into giving him all his money after having an affair with him. James' father found out, which resulted in the killings. James then took on the name Sawyer, and goes on to con women into giving him their money. The routine is he will have an affair with them, then arrange for the women to run away with him. After the women withdraw all the money ready to run away, he takes it and promises to meet them somewhere, but obviously never does. He had travelled to Australia to kill the original Sawyer and avenge his parents. He kills a man that he thought was Sawyer, but it turns out that it was just an innocent man. On the island, he is a bit of a lone wolf, as he appears to be self-centred and antisocial, but he is actually a good person on the inside despite his rough behaviour.


There is a ridiculously huge cast, but these are probably the most prominent characters throughout the show. While it may seem that the descriptions might spoil their storylines... it actually doesn't. It is just the beginning of the storyline, and it keeps developing further as the seasons go on, so don't feel like anything is ruined.

A lot of people don't like Lost because they think the story is too long, but I prefer long series... as I hate it when shows end. Also I think the storyline is really well thought out, and shown in such a way that there's always suspense, and keeps you wanting to know what the full story is. For this reason, I give the show a 9/10, and I recommend it for those who love epic storylines like I do. It's really quite amazing to see huge storylines come together bit by bit.

Anime/Manga Review: Soul Eater

The Soul Eater manga is still ongoing, though only released once a month... so it's a bit slow. The anime on the other hand, has finished... and since it ended while the manga was still going on, it means that the anime story diverted at the end. I actually didn't know this until I decided to look into the manga, and I do find it frustrating when animes do that, especially because the stuff that's in the manga but not in the anime... is actually quite good.

The story revolves around 'Shibusen' which is an academy started by 'Shinigami' (direct translation is Death God... which is what he is, but his actual name is just Shinigami). Shibusen is basically a school for 'technicians' and 'weapons'. Each student is either one of these, and work together in pairs, i.e each technician wields a weapon. The weapons have both a human form and a weapon form, which they can switch between. The final aim for each technician is to turn their weapon into a 'Death Scythe'. To do this, the weapon must consume 99 evil souls, and 1 soul of a witch. A Death Scythe is the ultimate form of a weapon, and have a very high status in Shibusen.

The main enemy in the story is known as 'Kishin', and he is a demon god that spreads insanity. He has been imprisoned in the past by Shinigami, but there is a witch named Medusa, who is trying to revive the demon god.

The main characters are;

Maka Albarn - The main character of the story. She is a scythe technician, and her partner is Soul. She is a very dedicated student, and is consistently at the top of her class. She specialises in 'soul perception', which is an ability that allows her to see the souls of others, and to detect the presence of them. She has a bad relationship with her father, because he keeps flirting with women, which was the cause of his divorce with Maka's mother. This is one of the ongoing jokes throughout the anime, as Maka's father is very obsessive with Maka.

Soul Eater - Maka's weapon partner. He is a scythe weapon. He is very laid back, and has a strange obsession with the word 'cool', and seems to apply it to a lot of stuff... although thats mainly just in the beginning, he doesn't seem to talk about it as much later on. He is very protective of Maka, and is willing to sacrifice his life for her.

Black Star - A descendent from a ninja clan. His partner is Tsubaki, who is a shadow weapon. Tsubaki can change into an assortment of weapons, making Black Star a very versatile fighter. Black Star is a very arrogant person, although he is still the strongest technician (aside from Death the Kid, since he's a death god). He is obsessed with being 'big', which coincides with his arrogant quality. Out of all the characters, he undergoes the most character development, so he's one of my favoured characters in the aspect.

Tsubaki - Black Star's weapon partner. She is a very quiet, kind and patient person. She seems to be the only person able to put up with Black Star's behaviour.

Death the Kid (normally referred to as Kid) - He is Shinigami's son. He insists on becoming a Shibusen student, despite his father telling him he doesn't need to. He is a dual-wield gun technician, and his partners are Liz and Patty Thompson. He has a major obsession with 'symmetry' (very far beyond Black Star's 'big' obsession), and is his major weakness. He needs everything to be in symmetry, or he'll become extremely depressed, or he will go out of his way to fix it. Sometimes he will forget whether he left something in his room perfectly aligned, and he will head back just to check on it, despite being in the middle of a mission. Along with Shinigami, they are my favourite characters in terms of humour.

Thompson Sisters - Kid's weapons. They are sisters of course, with Liz being the older one. Liz is a bit of a coward and finds Kid's obsession very annoying. Patty is very childlike, and finds just about everything amusing. Patty also has larger breasts than Liz, which Liz finds annoying when Kid points it out (because of symmetry reasons).

Dr Franken Stein - He is a teacher at Shibusen, and is also considered the best technician to ever graduate at Shibusen. He is very obsessive with disecting things, and wants to experience on basically everything. He has a great understanding of soul wavelengths, and can adapt his soul wavelength accordingly, in order to nullify someone's attack against him, or to be able to wield any weapon.

Spirit aka Death Scythe - Maka's father, and is sometimes known as Death Scythe, since he is a Death Scythe, but mainly because he is a scythe weapon. He is Shinigami's main Death Scythe, and he resides in Shibusen. He is obsessed with his daughter, and tries everything to get her to like him again. Yet he is a womaniser, and is commonly seen in seedy places.

Shinigami - Probably my favourite character, although Kid is very close as well. He is the headmaster of Shibusen. He has a very comical voice, and generally talks quite funnily. My favourite parts are when he uses his 'Shinigami Chop' to silence people, or to punish them.

Blair - a cat with exceptionally strong magic powers. She is not actually a witch, but she can transform into a human-form. In her human form, she is a very busty young woman. She is very shameless, and likes to flirt with Soul, which angers Maka. I actually like her a lot better in the manga, because I think she's a lot better drawn in the manga, than in the anime. The way she's drawn in the manga suits her personality a lot more... in that she looks a lot more seductive.


Rating - 10/10. Soul Eater has a good combination of both humour and action (leans more on humour though), and the storyline is pretty reasonable, though not on par to other animes like Code Geass. But despite that, I think it's still well deserving of a 10 because of the comedy in it. It is suitable to all audiences, and I'd probably recommend watching the anime first, since the manga is still ongoing (there will be more manga chapters waiting for you by the time you finish watching the anime).

Below is a picture of Maka Albarn, wielding Soul in his weapon form.

Anime Review: Full Metal Alchemist

If you were a writer, and you started off writing a story, but only complete 2 chapters and then give it to a few people and see how they would continue on with it... they are obviously going to come up with different storylines, but hopefully with a good interpretation of how you intended the story to go. This is sort of what happened with Full Metal Alchemist (FMA). There are actually 2 versions of FMA in anime form. The first is simply Full Metal Alchemist, and the second is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Basically what happened was... the manga for FMA was being written, and the anime was started shortly after. The anime only followed the manga's storyline briefly (probably about a couple of chapters worth), and then it diverted to the anime director's interpretation of how the story would turn out. FMA Brotherhood was then later developed a couple of years later, and it followed the manga's storyline. FMA Brotherhood is still ongoing, while the first FMA was finished a while ago now, with a movie tying up loose ends. It's quite interesting that although the first anime's adaptation had a completely different storyline and explanation for why certain things happened... it still made a lot of sense, despite being so different to how it is to the manga's intention.

On to the plot... FMA is set in a world that would be of similar time to World War 1 and 2. Also, there is a common practice known as alchemy, which involves the transmutation of one thing into another. The fundamental law of alchemy was that you can not create anything out of nothing, and thus why human transmutation is forbidden. The main characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric did not know about this when they were little, and they attempted to perform human transmutation on their mother who had recently died. Since you can not create live through alchemy, the transmutation failed and it resulted in Edward losing an arm and a leg, while Alphonse lost his whole body. Some quick thinking allowed Edward to use alchemy to attach Alphonse's soul to a suit of armour. Thus the general storyline is based on these 2 brothers trying to find a way to restore their bodies, and this is consistent in both versions of FMA. It's just the later parts which differ a lot.

Aside from the differences in storyline, the main thing I noticed was that the first FMA is of a much darker and more serious atmosphere, whilst FMA Brotherhood is more cartoonish and puts more emphasis on the comedy aspect of it (i.e Edward's personal hate of people calling him short). I'm not really sure which one I favour more, but theres definitely a clear difference in the way the animes are shown.

There are a heap of characters throughout the anime, but I'll just discuss a few of the main staples:

Edward Elric - Obviously the main character. He has an 'auto-mail' arm and leg, to replace the limbs that were taken during the failed human transmutation. It's essentially a fake limb made of metal, but it connects to the person's nervous system allowing him/her to control it as it if was an actual limb. A lot of people make comments about him being short, which he really hates, especially when they think Alphonse is the older brother due to his armour being much larger than Edward. He becomes a state alchemist in order to obtain more information about how to get their bodies back.

Alphonse Elric - The younger brother of Edward. He is superior to Edward in hand to hand fighting, although not as gifted in alchemy. While Edward is the hot-head, Alphonse is the calmer, thinking type. Both Alphonse and Edward are really soft hearted, but Alphonse shows it more... while Edward is more of the 'put on a hard face' type of person.

Winry Rockbell - The childhood friend of Edward and Alphonse. She is an auto-mail mechanic, and she maintains Edward's auto-mail. She is very enthusiastic about her work, and she gets extremely excited about anything related to auto-mail. Apart from that, she's a very typical kind of girl that you expect the lead female to be.


Rating - 9/10. I almost gave it 9.5, but it's not quite up to the standards of some of the other animes I've seen, although it has a great storyline. If you are going to watch FMA, I'd recommend watching the earlier version first, before you watch FMA Brotherhood. Main reason is that FMA Brotherhood is still on-going, but I think it's better to watch the more serious one first, before watching the one that focuses more on comedy. Also, it means you can see how the anime director interprets it, as opposed to how the manga writers intended it to be. However, if you're not a fan of dark kind of anime with a lot of gore, then maybe just watch FMA Brotherhood. I do admit that there are some pretty upsetting scenes in the first FMA, and some that made me cringe.

Below is a picture of 2 main characters; Edward Elric (left) and Winry Rockbell (right).

Movie Review: Avatar

Last night I went to see Avatar finally. The 3D glasses have taken a pretty big upgrade since I last saw a 3D film back in primary school.

So the film is about the humans discovering a planet called Pandora, where a mineral called unobtanium is found. 1 kg of this mineral is worth millions of dollars, and of course... being the greedy race that we are... the humans are trying to extract it. However, the area is inhabited by an indigenous race of humanoids called the Na'vi. The Na'vi resist the humans, as they are obviously going to protect their lands from alien invaders. Thus, the humans developed the Avatar project, where they grow Na'vi bodies modified with human DNA. When the body is complete, the person who's DNA was put in the body, will then be put into something which resembled a coffin to me... but is actually a machine which allows the person to mentally link to the avatar and control it.

So the main character, Jake Sully, replaces his dead twin brother as an avatar operator, since only he will be able to control his brother's avatar. He is sent to the Na'vi to learn their ways, so that they will accept him as their own and trust him. After that, he is meant to persuade them to allow the humans to come and mine the minerals. However, when you live with people for a long time and get to know them that closely... your perception about it begins to change, which is what happens with Jake and puts him in a dilemma of doing his job, or doing what he feels is right.

In my opinion, the story is rather plain and generally just uninteresting... but for this type of movie, you probably won't be going to watch it for its story. The visual effects were quite stunning, with great colours enhanced by the 3D technology. In particular, my favourite was when you see the cockpit of the helicopters with full computer interfaces, which really stood out with the 3D glasses... looked pretty amazing.

Just a couple of things to note. The flying mounts that the Na'vi use reminded me of the drakes in World of Warcraft.... at least the head portion of them... kind of bizarre. Also, I noticed one of the battlecries of the female Na'vi sounded very much like Xena's battlecry... wonder if they just copied it =P

If you haven't already seen the movie, it's definitely good to experience the visual effects of the movie. If you're after a good story... you'll probably need to look elsewhere (perhaps check my older reviews =P). It has been labelled as the stepping stone of 3D technology, so if nothing else... it's good to experience that, before it becomes a staple in movies... i.e every future movie ends up being shown in 3D. My rating for the movie is 7/10... it lost a lot for having a poor storyline, but it made up for it with the visual effects and the action.

Cascada - Fever

Normally when I posted a link, I'll use tinyurl to shorten the urls so that it looks less spammy. But I recently found out that sometimes ppl will use tinyurl to hide links to dangerous sites with trojans, adware, etc. So I'm gonna just post without tinyurl so that ppl don't need to worry so much about that sort of thing... not that I'd post anything dangerous here anyway.

Anyways, this post is for those who love dance music like me. This song is by Cascada, who some may know as the artist who sings Evacuate the Dancefloor. Fever is from the same album, and is in my opinion much better than Evacuate the Dancefloor. One of my favourite songs atm, and it's a perfect song for mixing as well.

This is a youtube link to the official music video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFXdW3eN2uo

Her background dancers r pretty sexy imo.

Also, for those who enjoy remixes of songs... this one is by Ryan Thistlebeck is amazingly good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNCZb-8I2W4&feature=related

TV Show Review: V

V is a relatively new show that has only aired 4 episodes so far, with the 5th episode continuing in March 2010. It is based off a mini-series from 1983, and of course remade into a modern version of it.

The plot is based on aliens who arrive on earth in high-tech spaceships, and each ship hovers over each of the main cities of the world. The ship hovering over the U.S is the flagship in which the leader of the aliens; Anna, resides. The base of the ships overturn to reveal lights which project an image of Anna who then addresses the country. Each ship across the world also does the same, showing Anna's face, but she talks in the language of whichever country she's hovering over. She is of human appearance, and she states that they come in peace and are looking for materials only found on Earth, and in exchange they will share their technology with the humans.

They establish 'health centres' around the world, which are able to cure just about anything. For instance, there is a minor character who had been in a wheelchair, but he was able to walk again after going to a health centre. Also interestingly enough, it caused a lot more people to begin attending church, as they seek answers to why the 'visitors' (as they call themselves) exist and whether they are trustworthy.

However, the pilot episode (the first episode) quickly reveals that the aliens actually have an ulterior motive, and are not actually human. There is a traitorous faction among the aliens who have been living amongst humans, as well as normal aliens who have been amongst humans, possibly causing many of the catastrophes that the world has seen throughout history. Thus the story is about trying to expose the aliens for their true purpose, although very few people are aware of this.

Some people may also recognise a couple of actors from other shows, mainly Juliette from Lost, and Alpha from Dollhouse. The main characters are;

Erica Evans - an FBI agent, who is also a single mum, with a teenage son. She discovers that the deception of the visitors, and is one of the people who are involved in trying to form a resistance.

Ryan Nichols - he is a traitor V that's posing as a human and is also trying to form a resistance

Father Jack Landry - a priest who also finds out about the visitors' true intentions, and is helping with the resistance. He is also a war veteran, hence why he has good fighting abilities despite being a priest.

Tyler Evans - the son of Erica Evans. He falls in love with a visitor named Lisa and joins up with the visitors in an ambassador program, but mainly so he can get closer to Lisa.

Valerie Stevens - she is the fiancee of Ryan Nichols, and she is unaware of his true nature

Lisa - a beautiful visitor who becomes the love interest of Tyler Evans. Not really sure if she truely has feelings for Tyler, but she's at least acting on Tyler's infatuation of her to her advantage.

Anna - the leader of the visitors. She is also very attractive, which prompts a journalist named Chad Decker to ask her whether there are any ugly visitors.

Chad Decker - the journalist that was chosen by Anna to conduct interviews with her, in order to help with showing the world that the visitors are trustworthy. His career takes a big leap once this happens, and he seems to be pretty ambitious, yet still wary of Anna, so he is kind of caught between reporting what Anna wants him to report, or doing his job by asking her the hard questions, which she has specifically told him not to ask.


Although there is only a few episodes out, it definitely looks like a promising show. I won't rate it as of this moment, since I would need to see more before I can make a better judgment, but it's worth checking out. In particular, the pilot episode is very good, and received good ratings from critics from what I have read, and I agree with that because it gets to the point, and gives a very good introduction to all the main characters and to the plot itself. The next episode won't air till March, so it's probably a good idea to check it out mid February so you don't have to wait so long for it.

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

Happy new year everyone. I've been off enjoying my break, so haven't been posting anything since then. Wish my break was longer, but alas... all good things must come to an end.

During the break, I watched Sherlock Holmes with a couple of friends. As we all probably know, Sherlock Holmes is a famous English detective novel. Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and his uncanny ability to solve the most difficult cases, and this has been made into a modernised movie format.

The plot is based around 'dark magic' supposedly being practiced by a characted named Lord Blackwood. At the very beginning of the movie, Holmes and Dr Watson (Holmes' sidekick and best friend) stop a dark ritual, which was going to involve a human sacrifice. The ritual was being commited by Lord Blackwood, and he is arrested. Blackwood is executed 3 months later, but apparently arises from the dead. Afterwards, many murders are commited and its up to Holmes to find out what really happened.

I personally really enjoyed the mystery involved in the film, which of course is very well explained later on, and all these little things that you see throughout the film suddenly make sense. I always like these kinds of movies/tv shows/animes that make use of things that stimulate the mind, and are just generally very clever. I did find it a little odd that Dr Watson was a very capable fighter. I could understand that Holmes, being a detective... would be a good fighter, but I was definitely not expecting Watson to be one as well. However, I read into it a bit more, and Watson is supposed to be a war veteran, so in hindsight it wasn't so bad. It did amuse me when Watson would have people in a headlock and he'll say "don't worry, I'm a doctor."

Despite it being based on the Shelock Holmes novels, there is an obvious absence of the cliche "elementary, my dear Watson." My friend also commented that it would've been awesome if they had added "no shit Sherlock" to the script as well. But alas... maybe in a sequel =P

The main characters of the movie are;

Sherlock Holmes - obviously. He is a genius, and has exceptional deductive capabilities. He takes into account everything, even the littlest of things, and work out things about a person, or deduce what happened at a particular scene. He is also a very skilled fighter, and its quite awesome to see him combine the 2 skills. Basically what he'll do is mentally visualise his plan of attack, and list them step by step. Then he'll execute it perfectly in exactly how he previously described. I find it a clever way of explaining what is actually going on in a fight.

Dr Watson - supposed to be a sidekick for Holmes, but in the movie they seem more like colleagues and good friends. He is of course a doctor, and was present at Blackhorn's execution to confirm his death. While Holmes is quite laid back, Watson is more of a serious character.

Irene Adler - Holmes' past love interest, who is the only person to have outwitted Holmes. She herself is quite intelligent and cunning. She's played by Rachel McAdams, who some people will remember as Regina George in Mean Girls. When I first saw her, I felt like I know who she was but couldn't put a name to her face. I didn't realise till later, that it was Rachel McAdams (I didn't look at the cast before I watched the movie)... she looks quite different without the blonde hair.

Lord Blackwood - as previously mentioned, he is involved in the practice of black magic, and he is using that to take over Britain.


Rating - 8.5/10. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I think its definitely worth checking out, if you haven't already. It has good humour, and some of the fight scenes are quite interesting. The best thing is the element of mystery and then hearing the explanation of what everything meant at the end. I also really liked the background music and I think its quite fitting to the setting of the movie. The movie is suitable for all audiences, but be prepared to keep up with the movie, as Holmes can speak quite fast sometimes.