Rediscovering my childhood

I've been a little busy for the month of May. I usually read only 3-5 books a month, but I guess I've read more than 6 this month so far. And in terms of movies, I usually watch one or two in a month; but this month, and the month's not yet over, I've seen, ummm, let me check, three already! Haha. That's already an achievement on my part, FYI.

Movies seen:

1. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith - I was never a Star Wars (or Star Trek!) fanatic. Although I believe I thoroughly enjoyed the first three produced films, I was a bit lukewarm in welcoming the three prequels. But I think I third one, which I watched last Thursday (5.19.05) with some friends, was definitely the necessary part that triggered my love for the series. Hmmm, plus it didn't hurt that Anakin has grown really yummier now. Anyway, back to the movie. I think it was tragic, and heart-renching, what happened to Anakin. I joked with my friend Francis that it was all Samuel L. Jackson's fault why Anakin turned evil: by refusing to bestow upon him the title of "Master" in the Jedi Council, he was extremely attracted to the titles of "Lord" and "Darth" given by the Sith Lord, Palpatine. Oh well. I no longer remembered the original 3, so I did a little surfing on the net and read that Darth Vader redeemed himself in the end, after all. So, I guess, he still did his part. He still was the chosen one, and through his children, Luke and Leai, the force became aligned with good once more.

Another reason why I'm really gushing about SWIII is because after the movie I, my friends Francis, Lambz, and Kit got to discussing genre-related films, until of course we talked about The Neverending Story. And The Dark Crystal. No one actually remembers the latter, but I do. Maybe because my mother watched this movie with me a million times (i'm not exaggerating) while I was growing up. Imagine growing up watching strange beasts and characters and strange worlds and languages??!! No wonder I'm weird. (Laughs).

2. Kingdom of Heaven - a little dragging in the very beginning, and quite historically confusing (though I don't consider myself a "Crusades-interested" history buff, I still felt several of the events in the film were purely fictional (and after reading an article, I found out that some were indeed contrary to historical facts). The battle scenes were kinda boring (of course, in the grand tradition of LOTR and STAR WARS, how could it compete?), but what I truly liked about the film was the portrayal (and this was historically true) of Saladin, the Moslem leader who led the siege of Jerusalem. I believe the most memorable scene was when Balian of Ibelin asked Saladin if he would allow the Christians safe passage out of Jerusalem. Saladin gave his word. When Balian still insisted that perhaps he might not keep his word as the Christians in the past slaughtered every Moslem in Jerusalem, Saladin replied, "I am not like them. I am Salahudin, Salahudin". I believe this is a very powerful message, and a very important wake up call to every Christian and Jew (at least those who share Ariel Sharon's militaristic views) in the world. The Moslems have always been misunderstood since the inception of this very great faith, but if we look at history, and the present, we would discover that more damage to mankind and the world has been done by Christians, not Moslems. Of course I don't deny the fact that the extremists also give Moslems a bad name, but, perhaps, after hundreds of years of always being the scapegoats and the ones dominated, we can't blame some of them from taking matters into their own hands and using violence.

3. Can This Be Love? - I watched this alone, perhaps because it was a little baduy. But i think I liked it in the end. A little cheesy, but I needed the break.