Detektif Man (Shaheizy Sam) was investigating a series of gruesome murder. When shards of old glass photographic plates were found at the scenes, he decided to ask for help from Adam (Iedil Putra), his trusted forensic photographer. Both were plunged into the mysterious world of shamans and paranormal creatures as they ventured deeper into the case. 

Okay, I don't always go for local films but this one just pulled me into the cinema seat mainly because the director was Dain Iskandar Said - the same person who directed Bunohan. I love Bunohan so much that I didn't even think twice about going to see Interchange. I didn't read the synopsis, I didn't watch the trailer... I just went expecting nothing but artistic greatness. 

I was not disappointed. Interchange gave me the same feeling I got when I first watched Bunohan which was pure artistic ecstasy. 

Interchange was a mix of modern noir and old Borneo shamanism and taboo. Noir theme was confusingly intriguing enough but infused with paranormal themes, this film went on another level of fascinating. I might say that the mood and feel was sort of similar to Bunohan so if you adore Bunohan, you'd most probably like this one same as me.

What I love most about this movie is that almost every frame was artsy and beautiful. It's like, I was not really watching a movie. Instead, it seemed like a long slideshow of very well shot and edited photographs. 

The production value seemed high. I mean, the crime scenes itself were masterpieces. Human veins blending in with tree veins... gosh, they were projects of art. The make up and costumes were awesome too. 

Besides that, almost everything in this movie was indirect and subtle. A few times I had to tell myself to look for clues by literally looking at the bigger picture because they were not spoon fed. I felt that Dian Said treated audience as intelligent and challenged to be their own detectives to figure out what really was going on. I loved that very much. 

I loved Shaheizy Sam. He has been doing a good job in all of his films including this one. His portrayal as the assholish Detektif Man was spot on. In the dark and brooding world, Detektif Man provided a refreshing change of mood with his snarks and loyar buruk. "Potong stim betul lah!", said Detektif Man at a sauna house crime scene.

Besides Sam, Nicholas Saputra also did a splendid job in portraying the mysterious Belian. His mystical transformation looked eerily organic.

Actually, all casts did a great job but those two mentioned above were my favorites. Iedil Putra did adequately good as the anti-macho main character and Prisia Nasution provided ample queer attraction to her character, Iva.


Another thing I admired was that how Dian Said made this movie so Malaysian but not too obviously Malaysian. There were no shots of KLCC or KL Tower or other famous Malaysian landmarks. However, watching this movie, I just knew. I knew the place settings were in Malaysia. Those old chinese influenced buildings and shop lots.... Gosh, watching this movie made me crave for a walk through Jonker.

Furthermore, the diversity of races could be seen in this movie added to the Malaysian feel. Not to mention, the homey feel of Manglish. 

All in all, Interchange was an interesting indie felt, artistic movie with the theme of noir mixed with supernatural elements. The cinematography was artsy and beautiful and the cast members did an excellent job in portraying their characters especially Sam with Detektif Man. 

Hari Isnin yang lepas, seorang kenalan (fellow KBM TESLian & an English lecturer at Politeknik Merlimau) telah meninggal dunia.

Saya tidak begitu mengenali beliau. Kenal kenal macam tu je, tak pernah berkawan. Tapi sepanjang hari, timeline di Facebook saya dipenuhi dengan puji-pujian kepada arwah Hamdi.

Ramai menyatakan yang arwah seorang yang baik, sangat suka menolong orang lain, banyak memberikan semangat di kala orang lain berduka dan seorang yang periang dan gembira.

A group of supervillains were gathered by the government to prevent any 'Superman' level threats. 

I couldn't afford to miss this film. Not after all the hype and Margot Robbie as Harley freakin' Quinn! I think every guy (and girl) have at least a bit of hots for Margot Robbie after her sexy performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. 

As excited as I was, I didn't have the chance to catch it during releasing day because, you know, I'm a husband and father so responsibility comes first. Therefore, before watching it, I was swamped with all these hateful comments on the movie. Many say that it's a disappointment and many hated it. A handful defended Suicide Squad saying it's entertaining and Harley & Joker is relationship goals but they were all drowned by the bashings. 

I didn't care. Suck or not, I have to see it. I just love it when comic characters being made alive. 

My initial reaction? Dammmmnnnnn.... I was so excited when they showed Harley Quinn in the cage. By excited, I mean aroused. Honestly, it was so hard to contain myself. Well, not just Harley but I was also extremely excited to see the others, especially Deadshot. He's so badass in Batman: Assault on Arkham. 

My final reaction? I just couldn't stop smiling when I saw the end credit scene. DAMMMNNNN What you all are rambling about?? What do you mean it sucks??? This movie is so damn entertaining, I felt really good watching it. 

Okay, yes the script is awful. I could see the casts' struggle to deliver good punchlines but all in all, I think this is an enjoyable movie. 

You wanna know what I think? I think this movie is more like an action movie rather than superhero flick. Yeah, I love action movies. Most probably that's why I enjoy it too much. Suicide Squad gave me the same vibe as The Expendables. Yeah, that's right. They even sort of have the same concept - gather all the hardcores and form a team. The Suicide Squad are expendables themselves.

or maybe I'm just easy to please or my expectations were low I don't know but bottom line is, I just can't wait for the DVD release. I think it will be longer and smoother just like what happened with Batman V Superman. 

Heh heh alright I'm gonna turn off the rambling mode.

In all seriousness, all in all, Suicide Squad is an entertaining movie for me mainly because I was so excited to see the characters I love in the comics on the big screen. I love how they portrayed all of the characters especially Harley and Enchantress.

As I mentioned before, Margot Robbie as Harley is the best idea ever. Besides that, I was so intrigued with the design of Enchantress. The way she look is just spooky. Her appearance really gave me a chill. The locking hands every time she's about to appear, that's just awesome.

Apart from that, El Diablo's god mode gave me a hard nerdgasm. I mean, look at that glorious colossal battle! Boom! Bam! RARRRGHHH. So awesome.

What I would love to see more is the banter between Captain Boomerang and Deadshot. Instead of giving us that, they gave us Deadshot V Rick Flag.

Are you guys waiting on me giving you my opinion on Joker? Sorry to keep you waiting but I think Jared Leto should be working more on the smile. It doesn't feel like a scary psychotic smile to me. Other than that, personally Leto's performance is not bad. Not as awesome as The Dark Knight's but yeah, not bad either. Hopefully I can see more of him in future Batman movies. Yeah, yeah I'm quite an optimist.

My biggest disappointment is Batman. I recalled reading an article saying that Batman in Suicide Squad is super scary. I didn't see that in this film. Probably it was edited out to make sure it's less serious, I don't know. I was hoping him to be as creepy as his appearance in Batman V Superman - the part when he hanged on the ceiling like a creepy ghost bat. However, Bruce Wayne made up for it. Seeing how fierce he was when dealing with Amanda Waller, damn, damn, damn Ben Affleck is bae.

As a conclusion, fuck you haters. Excuse me, I mean, go to hell Marvel fanatics. No no no... I mean, ahem. Excuse me. As a conclusion, for me, Suicide Squad is a memorable experience as I treated it as an action movie rather than comparing it with Marvel films. Yes, it has horrible script but it managed to entertain me so much. Muahh

Batman / Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) felt that Superman (Henry Cavill) was a threat to mankind because of his godlike powers and therefore challenged him for a fight. 

[MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

Before I begin, I would like to say that I'm a fan of DC comics and animation. I grew up watching Justice League (2001 - 2004) and Justice League Unlimited (2004 - 2006) and I loved Young Justice (2010 - 2013) so much! I've watched all of DC animated movies. I'm not that familiar with the classic comics but I keep a close track of the New 52 version and also the latest version - DC You. When they first announced about Batman v Superman, I was beyond hyped! Then when they said it's gonna be Dawn of Justice, I was ugh ugh argh...... .... excuse me. A little case of nerdgasm there.

So, taking that into consideration, you can say that I might be a bit biased towards this movie. But I'll try to be honest with my opinion. 

Okay, I would love to start with Batman. Before the showing, comic fans & movie buffs were crazy about the production house casting Ben Affleck for the role of the dark knight mainly because of the failure of Daredevil (2003). However, Ben  proved to everyone that he is more than qualified to don the cape and also rock the seasoned billionaire look. Everyone is now praising him to be the Batman we all deserve and I agree with them. Man, the scene when Batman punched through the bad guys to get to Martha was epic! I wanted to see more of that. Besides that, my other favorite movie scene is when two police officers raided a house used for human trafficking. The way the victims were too scared to leave their cage and the portrayal of Batman being so devil-like. Ugh, I want more of that! 

Apart from that, I also love Alfred (Jeremy Irons). His snarks and sarcasms brought a bit of subtle comedy that I very much appreciated. I love him and wish to see more of him.

Next thing I love about is Wonder Woman. Her appearance was brief in this movie but rather noticeable. At first I wasn't sure whether I liked her or not - in the comics and cartoons, she's brute and violent but in this movie, she's rather into espionage. But seeing how she smiled during the last battle with Doomsday, man, I'm sold! I love her! That one scene, that one smile. I love her now. Adding to the love is the fact I've been in love with Gal Gadot since Fast Five. And I'm excited to hear Wonder Woman standalone movie to come out June 2nd 2017. 

The last fight with Doomsday was epic! Definitely what I was expecting from Zack Snyder. As I mentioned, one of my favorite things about that fight was Wonder Woman. Man, she's just awesome from the start of the monster brawl to the end. Batman was the most human of all in the fight so he couldn't contribute much in terms of wearing down Doomsday. But the fact that Doomsday is Krypton origin made it relevant for the dark knight to be in it since he forged and weaponized Kryptonite. Superman also put up an awesome fight. That heat vision showdown almost got me standing. Rarrhhhhhhh!!!

Henry Cavill is also solid as Superman but squeezing four (including Lex) main characters in one movie has taken a toll to his character. Maybe Snyder thought that Superman has been introduced in Man of Steel and therefore the focus on him is quite limited. Thus, they only show montages of him saving people in a big scale instead of showing in depth of how passionate he is about saving lives. They should have made Superman interact with the victims more.


Heck, I almost screamed with excitement when they showed Aquaman. His shot was awesome. Like an octopus he emerged from the wreckage and then, BOOM! he vanished. Awesome! I wish that they have shown more of the three meta humans (Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg) instead of just short clips. It was awesome seeing them all!
Okay, now I'm gonna go negative.

In my opinion, this movie failed to go full dark. The beginning of the movie is awesome. I love how portrayed Bruce's parents murder. That pearl and gun shot? Owh wow. I love that. The part when Batman branded the human trafficker? Wow wow wow. It got me excited. But then as the movie progresses, the dark and brood mood disappeared and things got rather... ... mundane. I didn't feel the build up and the suspense. I was hoping to feel the tension that I felt when watching The Dark Knight.

The mundane mood was probably caused by how mundane Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is. While watching, I kept screaming internally, THAT'S NOT LEX LUTHOR! In the comics and cartoons, Lex Luthor is very calculative and calm. An evil genius mastermind. The Lex is Batman v Superman is mentally unstable and wimpy. The real Lex Luthor wouldn't make deals for what he wants! He would just take everything that he wants with his evil schemes! I really hate this version of Luthor. I hate it to the core!

All in all, in my opinion, I think that this movie is rather watchable. It's a good movie and I would want to watch it again but it's just not great. It doesn't live up to the hype and promo. It's trying to be dark but it's not. 

Besides that, I think the critics are being too harsh on this movie. Sure, it's not great but damn, they are slamming this movie like it's crap. It's not crap! Like I said, this movie is good... it's just not great. How good it is? Well, I would definitely say it is Age of Ultron good.