Darla!

Category: likes & dislikes

Likes & Dislikes: Ant-Man

For the very first time in years, I didn’t watch Marvel movie on its first showing day. Ant-Man was released one day before the Eid. There was no way for me to go to movie on Eid eve, so I had to skip the premiere. It was such a bummer, given the fact that I had a straight record of seeing the premiere. Haha!

Ant-Man tells the story of Hank Pym, who invented a substance called Pym Particle which can shrink human into an ant-like tiny form. He shut down his own research because he saw that his invention could potentially create chaos in the world. However, he needs to use the particle again when his protegee, a young scientist named Cross, gets closer to finding hiw own shrinking substance. Hank is already too old to become Ant-Man, so he chooses Scott Lang, a criminal freshly out of prison for burglary. The two men along with Hank’s daughter create a plan to steal Cross’ invention to stop it being exploited by Hydra.

Likes

+ It’s refreshing to see smaller (both literally and figuratively) Marvel movie. After seeing London and Sokovia being destroyed in previous MCU movies, seeing Ant-Man saving the world by fighting Cross on top of Thomas the Tank Engine is super entertaining. Ant-Man is a proof that superhero movies can be fun and don’t always need to be depressing (remember Age of Ultron?)
+ I love the father-daughter relationship in this movie. Not only the relationship between Scott and his daughter, Cassie, but also the one between Cassie and her mother’s fiance, Paxton.
+ I know both Hank and Scott are good looking as hell, but my all-time favourite character is Luis! His best scenes are the Dubsmash-like ones. Haha!
+ I also love the part where Falcon shows as a cameo. “It is really important to me that Cap never finds out about this.” Hilarious!
+ But my version of the best scene is of course the one when Siri plays Disintegration by The Cure. Classic yet techie joke.

Dislikes

– It’s less funny than any other installment in MCU. It’s even less funny than The Amazing Spider-Man.
– I don’t really know Paul Rudd. I didn’t even know the name Paul Rudd before Ant-Man. And I think his acting is flawed. There are several lines which should have been funny but came out just wrong, IMO.

That being said, I’m glad Ant-Man will be joining the Avengers in the next movies. But I’m also sad because Ant-Man marks the end of MCU Phase 2 and the Phase 3 won’t start until next year. That’s okay though, we will have Mockingjay Part 2 later this year 😉

Image via.

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

27 July 2015
Likes & Dislikes: Out Of The Wasteland (Lifehouse Album)

2015 has been so good to me as both my two favourite bands released an album when 2015 has only been 6 months. Earlier this year, Fall Out Boy released their sixth studio album. I wasn’t very excited and I didn’t like the album. They sound so different now than when I first found out about them and fell in love with their From Under The Cork Tree album. I understand that a band should evolve and become “more mature”, but it’s just not my taste. I didn’t post a review about American Beauty/American Psycho, because I knew it would be all negative.

Now, back to the awesomeness that Lifehouse’ new album, Out Of The Wasteland. Their previous album, Almeria, wasn’t really appealing to me and I gave it a bad review when comparing it to Boys Like Girls’ album. My argument was the same as why I didn’t like Fall Out Boy’s album: it didn’t sound like them. Almeria was a failure for me because it sounded so different than their previous albums. Out Of The Wasteland, however, has made me fall in love since the very first track, which is also the first single of the album, Hurricane. The whole album sounds like a nostalgia to me. All tracks bring me back to my teenage year where I used to stay in my room listening to Lifehouse’s self-titled album. It reminds me of being young and naive. The lyrics are also quotable; all my friends are probably already sick of my posting quotes from the album on my Path account. Haha!

Honestly all I can tell you about this album is just one word: AMAZING!, but here are my favourite tracks:

Hurricane – The lyrics feel personal to me. The lines “We made it through hell and back again” and “it just gets better” remind me so much about our struggle during our first year together. This song will be quoted by me for a long, long time to come. Haha!
Flight – The piano intro reminds me of one of their old songs, but I can’t really put my fingers on it.
Firing Squad – The intro and the lyrics make me want to stay up late and watch the sunrise.
Stardust – My #1 favourite track of the album! I love Bryce’s voice and he sounds even much better than he did in Wrecking Ball (in Smoke And Mirrors album). Glad to have two talented vocalists in one band.
Alien – The music sounds like Easier To Be (in Who We Are album) and I love it! Second favourite in this album.
Central Park – This one reminds me of Stanley Climbfall (in Stanley Climbfall) and Walking Away (in Lifehouse), but the lyrics isn’t as depressing. My 18 year old self would love this song very much. It’s a good song to listen to in the middle of the night (I don’t know why, though).
Hurt This Way – Hurt This Way sounds like a country song. I’m not really into country, but I like this one so damn much!

What do you guys think? Well, I can go on and on but I’m sure this whole post can be summarised with only one line: “This album is good so yeah go buy it, kids!” 😉

Image via.

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

11 June 2015
Likes & Dislikes: The Girl On The Train
I had heard good things about The Girl On The Train but I was never really interested to read it. But when Amber told me how she finished this book in less than 24 hours, my spidey sense was tingling. So I downloaded the digital version and started reading. It took me about 3 days to finish it (I’m not a fast reader, except for when it comes to Dan Brown’s books). Many reviews call it “the ‘Gone Girl’ of this year”, but since I haven’t read Gone Girl (what can I say? I’m not really into grown up novels) and only watched the film, I don’t think they’re comparable. But that’s just me.

Anyway…

The story itself is about a woman, Rachel, who takes the same train everyday, in the morning and in the evening. She becomes familiar with a couple who lives near the railway; she even gives them name inside her head. One day, the woman who lives in that house goes missing for days and on the day she was last seen, Rachel saw something that might be an important clue about the woman’s whereabouts. So Rachel goes to the police. But turns out Rachel is not a reliable witness. She is an alcoholic who constantly blacks out and has no memory of hours in her life. She also used to live a few doors next to the missing woman, where her ex-husband lives with his new wife and their little daughter. And turns out that the truth is so much close to Rachel’s life.

Likes
- As a commuter myself, I enjoy Rachel’s description of the train and her everyday journey.
- The whole idea of getting used to seeing a couple of strangers’ life is intriguing. I also like looking at people around me in public places and wondering what they’re going through (does it make me a creep?)
- It’s a page turner. It makes me want to read more.
- I have a personal experience regarding cheating and secret lover and such, so I enjoy reading the whole story between Rachel, her ex-husband, and his new wife. I understand their relationship; something I might not do if I didn’t have the experience.
Dislikes
- I don’t really like Rachel. It’s frustating to see her keep coming back to drinking. I have no sympathy for her at all for that reason.
- Rachel is too creepy. I understand the detectives’ suspicion towards her. She is a stranger to the missing woman and her husband, but she knows so much. She knows too much. She even has the guts to go directly to the missing woman’s husband. Gees…
- Helpless people. Helpless people everywhere.
- It’s too slow paced for me.
- About third quarter to the story, it becomes easy to guess the ending. The thrill and suspense that has been built since the beginning goes away just like that.
I’d give The Girl On The Train 2 out of 5 stars for those factors. I only enjoy several parts of the story, but the whole book is not really my thing.

Have you read this book? What do you think about it?

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
27 May 2015
Likes & Dislikes: Struck By Lightning (Movie)
Afief brought home a copy of this movie several days ago, so we spent our Friday night watching this. It was based on a novel with the same title, which I’ve had in my ‘want to read’ list on Goodreads for almost a year now. The book always loses over another book that I end up buying everytime I go to Books & Beyond. I don’t know; there’s just something about the cover that doesn’t seem appealing to my eyes (I judge a book by its cover, pardon me). I didn’t know that they made a movie based on it. And I didn’t even know that Chris Colfer is the author of the book, who then adapted it into movie script, who then played the main role on the movie. I’m not a Glee fan so I didn’t even know he was actually famous. I’m so ignorant.

Anyway…

This movie opens with a scene in which a high school senior, Carson Phillips, dies at his school’s parking lot after getting struck by lightning while walking to his car. The rest is a flashback about his ambition of becoming a great journalist. He is the president of the writer’s club in his school and a member of the student council. The writer’s club publishes the school newspaper, of which stories are all written by Carson alone, because the members do not contribute at all. He plans to go to Northwestern University to pursue a degree in journalism, but one day his counselor told him that they will not accept him based on his work on the school paper; it has to be something more. He decides to start school literary magazine and asks the students to contribute, but he fails because, again, nobody wants to contribute (except Malerie, a girl from the writer’s club who has no writing skills). A seemingly good chance comes up when Carson catches two male members of the student council making out in the boys’ toilet. He blackmails them into contributing to the magazine. Because this strategy works like magic, he then blackmails more students and so the magazine can finally be published.

Wait. The synopsis isn’t too long, is it?

Likes
- Rebel Wilson! God, I love her. She’s always hilarious without even doing anything.
- I always love movies with school settings (The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls, Easy A, etc.)
- I like Carson’s determination, but I’m strongly against the blackmailing.
- At first I wasn’t sympathetic towards Carson’s mother. But at the end of the movie, I could understand why she does what she does. I like how this movie describes depression and how it affects relationships.
Dislikes
- I believe that the blackmailing is supposed to be funny, but it can send a wrong message to younger people. The movie doesn’t address the consequences of blackmailing either (no, I don’t count getting struck by lightning as a consequence), so yeah… Parental guide is needed there.
- The ending doesn’t explain much. What happens to Carson’s father and his fiancee?
In conclusion, I’d probably give it three out of five stars. The movie doesn’t get well reception from professional critics either, but the book gets fairly good review on Goodreads. I think I’ll finally buy it the next time I go to Books & Beyond.

Have you watched this movie or read the book?

Images from here and here.

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
12 May 2015
Likes & Dislikes: Phone Cases from Head Case Designs
When I was in uni, I had come to realise that I always bought mobile phones of which accessories were not widely available. Remember when you could change your Nokia phone cases to any colour you want? Well, mine was always limited to boring white or boring black. When people could change their cases to transparent cases, I was super jealous. Then I bought a Sony Ericsson. The same thing happened and I was stuck with my boring, factory default case. I gave up, then I put stickers on it then decided to accept it just the way it was.

When the dawn of smartphones came, I bought my very first Android. It was the tiny Sony Ericsson Xperia X8. While everybody was using Samsung with all their fancy, colourful hard cases, I let my dear phone stay naked. I couldn’t find a case for it. When I changed it with Sony Xperia Miro, the same thing happened again. I was so tired and fed up, and when I almost gave up, I found Head Case Designs on eBay. I didn’t have a Paypal account back then, so I had to pay someone to buy it for me and had them ship it to my address. So for the first time in my life, my phone had a nice, cute hardcase. I was so happy.

I was so in love with the hardcase. I bought another hardcase for my Samsung Ace 3. Although there were various cases I could find in my local shop, I still went back to Head Case Designs because they have super awesome choices. And when I ordered yet another new phone, I also ordered a new hardcase. So in total, I have bought three cases from them. I’m so obsessed!

Likes
- The designs are so cute. There are various choices and styles, from chevron patterns, floral, animals, to retro. However, I somehow always end up buying hardcases with cats on it (I’m a crazy cat lady!)
- The material is nice. It gives firm grips for the phone and it makes the phone don’t slip off easily from my sweaty palms.
- It’s so affordable!
- They give you free shipping worldwide with no minimum purchase. How cool is that?
Dislikes
- The picture is not scratch-resistant. The hardcase on my Ace 3 has several scratches, like a long scratch across the cat’s eye and some on its corner. But I’m glad that it’s the hardcase that was scratched and not my phone. This is why putting on hardcase is important for your phone, you guys.
- Nothing else!
I’ve only had my new case for a week now, but I’m already thinking about order another one or two for my Grand Prime. I am so obsessed! I mean, look at their new line here. Should I buy another one, like, right now?

*Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Head Case Designs. I didn’t receive any compensation for writing this post. This post is my honest thoughts about their product and not sponsored by them.

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
20 April 2015