A Pinoy @ The Movies: LIFE

The movie trailer of Life seemed like an alien experiment gone bad. Interesting, I thought. And since I love these outer space movies, I had to watch it.

Life is about a group of scientists, doctors and engineers living inside the International Space Station (ISS). They're supposed to be a very smart bunch. 

Smart...until they were outsmarted.

Fresh from the planet Mars, a pack of soil samples was delivered to the ISS and was tested by the resident doctor. And all the while I thought Matt Damon had already done this in The Martian, where he even grew some potatoes! 

And that's when the trouble started - when the doctor started experimenting on the soil samples and you just have to watch it how.

And that's also the time when I realized this doctor wasn't smart at all. First, this was an alien organism, and he wanted to immediately touch it? Didn't he watch Sigourney Weaver's Alien series?  Second, he could have just closed the valves for oxygen to deprive the organism of air and kill it!  Well, if he did, there wouldn't have been any movie, would it? Ha-ha-ha!

Ryan Reynolds, as the ISS engineer, was just his comic self compared to another astronaut, George Clooney, who was sarcastically witty in Gravity. They both died in space. Oops!

It was Gravity that probably gave us the idea that a lot of action could still happen in these space vehicles in outer space, where everything's in slow motion.

With these very expensive space ships made up of millions of pieces, it only would need one loose bolt to screw up the whole thing. And in this case, it only needed one Martian cell to make the movie. 

This wasn't a heavy drama movie, so we need not expect stellar performances. But in the end, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson left to share the screen with 'Calvin', the Martian, both reminded me of Sandra Bullock's last minutes in Gravity inside the Shenzhou capsule.

And did Jake and Rebecca's plan work? 

Unfortunately, I figured out the ending even before the landing. Ha-ha-ha! So, I wasn't that surprised, unlike the Vietnamese fishermen. 

As to how it ended, you have to watch it, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the voyage as well! 

                           *   *   *   *   *

I have no idea how large the ISS is when it's on land, but this movie gave me an idea to look for it in the skies when it passes over the Philippines. 

If you want, too, here's the ISS website to track its passage over your city:

http://iss.astroviewer.net/

A Pinoy At The Movies: GRAVITY At Greenbelt 3!

Watching a movie in Greenbelt 3 was just a last-minute squeeze-in as I knew my Thursday in Makati City would be all about meeting friends whom I haven't seen in a while.

And while running around the city all day (actually only in the commercial and business districts), the thought that GRAVITY is a movie of astronauts floating over Earth and who do not have the luxury of a sit-down breakfast, lunch or merienda didn't cross my mind, or I would have symphathized with Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and the rest of the crew of the Space Shuttle Explorer, and slowed down on my eating. Ha-ha-ha!

I could think of a few movies I have seen where actors played astronauts, flew above our planet and walked on some celestial objects: Apollo 13, Armageddon, Deep Impact and Transformers. Thor, Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Superman and Avatar don't count. Ha-ha-ha! Not even Contact.

From start to finish, at least while they were in space, I was totally mesmerized with the thought of floating in a vacuum, breathing on a limited air supply and simply looking down on Earth trying to guess over which continent you're hovering above. Although some engineers and wise guys familiar with the space program have pointed out inconsistencies or impossibilities in the movie, I just let myself get lost in the whole adventure through the eyes, thoughts and heavy breathing (!) of Dr. Ryan Stone, played by the sexy-waist-line-and-legs Sandra Bullock. Yes, I also thought that she'd be wearing that very thick space suit all throughout the movie, and won't have the chance to show off her, well, form. Ha-ha-ha!

This film provided a new experience for me as a moviegoer as most films we usually watch are 100% on Earth, and some space films are totally sci-fi. This one's very humanly possible, or at least, tests the limits of the human mind and body. 

Although I also asked the questions as to why a doctor (unless she was a doctor-engineer? She didn't flash her resume in space) was doing some mechanical work in space, or as to why the Russians blew up their satellite without knowing there were earthlings orbiting the planet, I just accept them as part of the drama. After all, the director is a namesake. Ha-ha-ha!

The film lasts for 90 minutes, but I feel like I have been in space for a bit longer. It must have been Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which means that the space and time of Sandra Bullock's struggle above the Earth were relative to the space and time of my enjoyment in the movie theater. (Do I get a Nobel Prize for Physics nomination for that explanation?). Ha-ha-ha!

Yes, I did enjoy this film and I highly recommend that you watch it, too, for your spatial enjoyment. But as you watch I suggest that you always remind yourself you're not in space floating weightlessly. Otherwise, you'd also be grabbing the arms of your chair, or worse, you'd be grabbing the person next to you.

Also remind yourself that you're in the theater with unlimited supply of oxygen, or you'd find yourself hyperventilating or gasping for air. Although that didn't happen to me, I sometimes found myself inhaling heavily, just to make sure my lungs are full of air.

Although some people would delve and discuss some philosophical elements of the film, I just wanted to enjoy the scenes of watching the Earth from space and trying to think how much it would have cost the producers had they actually shot the film in space. Ha-ha-ha!  I also wondered whether that scene (spoiler alert!), where George Clooney entered the Soyuz and scolded Sandra Bullock on her giving up when he was supposed to be dead, was a dream-slash-hallucination of a ghost talking from the afterlife.

I am not surprised that this film is raking it at the box office because it's really a very good one. But thanks to my Globe points and Greenbelt 3 Cinemas, I was able to watch it for free. And with a full stomach and lungs. Ha-ha-ha!

But what made that Thursday even more memorable was seeing friends for breakfast, lunch and merienda in Makati City.

Thanks to Agnes for the breakfast at M Cafe of the Ayala Museum. I hope to see you and the gang back in Seoul in autumn! It was also great seeing Martin and his kids that morning!

          (Eggs Benedict at M Cafe of the Ayala Museum)

And it was a happy reunion-slash-birthday celebration for Arlene at the Paseo Uno in Mandarin Oriental with Fay and Christina! Thanks, Arlene, for the lunch and the yummy mocha cronuts at the Mandarin Deli! I hope to get some again in a few months.

            (Sinigang lunch at Paseo Uno of Mandarin Oriental)

                         (Mocha Cronuts at Mandarin Deli)

And as I rushed to Greenbelt 5 before the movie, Marlu introduced me to a Pinoy restaurant with a funny names for its dishes lifted from Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Thanks, Marlu, for the halo-halo!

              (Pepay The Dancer Halo-halo at Pia Y Damaso
                                          in Greenbelt 5)

Although that day ended with another heavy dinner, I just have to end it here, as somewhere over Earth, as I write this blog, an astronaut or cosmonaut or a taikonaut (a Chinese astronaut) may be floating in space looking down on us imagining themselves also sitting down comfortably in the presence of gravity and in a real restaurant chomping down real food, and not some nutrition in a food packet or tube. I'd like to sympathize.

But I'm sure, if ever astronauts decide to watch GRAVITY, they'll make sure they got their soda and popcorn. :-)