Movie review: Mirror Mirror (2012)

‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?’ That’s one of the most famous phrase we get to know in our childhood days from the popular fairy tale of Snow White, having been presented in storybook as well as in famous 1937 animated film. Almost eight decades later, the story is again being presented through film, not animated this time. ‘Mirror Mirror’ is this year’s film based on the story of Snow White but is delivered from the evil Queen’s perspective. Do not mistaken this film with another one going to be released soon this year which is also based on Snow White, entitled ‘Snow White and the Huntsmen’.

Snow White is no longer seen as a fairy tale depicted from this film. The story is translated into a much realistic and legendary proportion, defying the scale of innocence when this fairy tale first came out. Of course, the movie goes on a deeper and darker tone with much more emphasis on the evil Queen, living of the poor in the kingdom, and the seven dwarfs which are mine workers in the original story but turned out to be thieves on this one. Even the Snow White gets over her gentle and soft character into a strong defensive lady in this film. It’s interesting from the way the director put a little different touch to the characters and the original plot for a new refreshing appearance in the current modern days. But I believe this ‘Mirror Mirror’ is in a much lighter tone compared to the upcoming ‘Snow White and the Huntsmen’.

Eventhough the story differs quite a lot from the original version, but I think that is appropriate and reasonable since the story is now told not from Snow White’s perspective but is from the evil Queen’s perspective. Anyway, the story in the end still focus on Snow White, which the film concluded that it’s her story after all. I like this conclusion and I mean only this. The way the movie ends with a Bollywood-styled dance and singing by Snow White appears to be very awkward and not matching to the mood of the film. Luckily, it still has a happy ending that most of us wish for; Snow White finally gets together with the Prince and the King returned to save the kingdom.

Julia Roberts portrayed the character as the evil Queen very well while Lily Collins performed quite satisfying too as the Snow White. Julia Roberts is the first one to be cast for this very important role, and I’m sure they must be very confident of her performance. In this movie, the Queen is not actually evil, but feels insecure over the presence of Snow White, her stepdaughter. Julia Roberts delivered the character very well based on that approach. I have to say Armie Hammer somehow didn’t do a good job here. His facial expression never gets our eyes on and he always looks dull on this movie, just like how he is in the movie ‘The Social Network’. No improvement.

A credit is given to the costumes. Lovely costumes, especially the dress for the Queen. The costumes look simply excellent and for the Queen, majestic! Even the seven dwarfs has a much more detailed outfits this time. Overall, it’s an entertaining movie to watch but you will not go for it the second time or more. It is just a plain film with nothing more to expect than a story that would comes into a happy ending with even some of the twists available throughout the story didn’t get you surprised.  It’s worth watching anyway, and out of 10 points, I rate ‘Mirror Mirror’ a total of 6.6.

Less than three months away to London 2012.

Yes, it’s less than three months away from the world largest sporting event, London 2012 Summer Olympic Games which is going to be held from 27 July to 12 August this year. So, to be exact, it’s 88 days to its much anticipated opening ceremony from now. Another cycle of four years went through so quickly, from the previous 29th edition in Beijing 2008 to the current countdown to 30th edition in London 2012. It’s a great year to London, where eyes of the world would be on this lovely city celebrating the spirit of ‘olympic’ from sports to culture and architecture this year.

This year is also the year of diamond jubilee celebration of Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms. It is confirmed that her majesty would be attending the opening and closing ceremonies, in which she would open the games as the head of state. Well, this must be a very great year for her and to the country, which holds double celebrations on this year alone. The atmosphere must be very good by now, with many decorations in relation to the upcoming Olympics are set up all over the city of London. Image below taken from http://www.lhrtimes.com/2012/02/29/queen-elizabeth-ii-to-open-london-2012-olympic/ shows a giant Olympic rings floats over the River Thames with the backdrop of London Tower Bridge as part of the decorations produced for the games.

Back to the Olympic Park which is the main sporting zone for the Olympic Games. Construction of venues have been completed and the progress is now on touching up especially on the interior finishes. However, the whole Olympic Park as of today still appears as a huge construction zone while the organizers had strongly informed that the work is on schedule and everything would be done in time before the start of the games. Well, I guess they still have a lot of works to do, like removing all the construction materials, cranes and equipments and also heavy landscaping which is essential to beautify the Olympic Park. Image below taken from the games’ official website shows the current condition of Olympic Park in an aerial view:

The aspect of this edition of games that is being complimented is not on the scale of the games organized this time, but is on the sustainability measures applied into many areas of the games. Many venues built for the games will be demolished or reduced in capacity and size to save cost and eliminate heavy burden on maintenance in the future. The Olympic Park alone would be transformed into a whole new neighbourhood for the people of London after the games. Before the organizers picked the land for Olympic Park, that plot of land is something like an abandoned zone in the city where no one would look for. But now, it is transformed into the centre of the largest sporting event this year, and in the future, to be turned into a whole new beneficial neighbourhood to the people.

It’s less than three months away to London 2012. The city is now on its way to get prepared to welcome the world to witness and experience the games like never before very soon!

After a very happening day over in KL, people now discussed over Bersih 3.0 rally today all over the internet

More and more videos are coming out, in which I have seen some of them. Mainly all that videos are a very great proof to the violence of the cops to the supporters of the Bersih 3.0 rally. There are also quite a number of pictures spread in viral now all over Facebook, not only showing how massive the crowd is but also showing some of the aggressive treatment from the police to the people like firing chemical laced water cannon, tear gases and even ramming their patrol car into the citizens.

The police explained that they have to do all because the people started to misbehave and breaching over the placed barricades all over around Dataran Merdeka, the planned venue for the peaceful sitting demonstration. The supporters are not allowed to go in, and so they have to break the rules which is definitely a reasonable act. If the cops didn’t close the venue, then everything would be fine with a peaceful demonstration without any bad consequences as seen now which are expected earlier (injuries and harm to nation’s image).

Over 300 people have been arrested as reported and I don’t know their fate now. They must be treated very badly. Showing support to something positive for the country, and yet being treated as if they are the nation’s enemies. Those media and news channels under the control of the ruling government reported that the ‘Bersih’ (clean) movement should be called ‘kotor’ (dirty). Don’t they think as human before writing such piece of shit?! Even if the supporters went ‘kotor’ in the rally just now (anyway, it’s the cops that provoked the supporters to protest and fight back), it only happened on this day alone, while the government on the other hand has been ‘dirty’ for so many years! Stupid news channels. People, please stop believing those sources (TV3, Utusan, Berita Harian, The Star) if you want to read something true on political issues. Those are like ‘dogs’ to the government, acting as a tool of propaganda.

Ahh, I watched the clip shown from a news on 8TV showing how our Prime Minister responded with the rally today. He said it’s okay if it’s not harming the nation’s reputation. The supporters came in peace but the cops provoked their anger, which leads to all the bad things happening today, and so the blame on harming the nation’s image should be on the violent cops. They offered a lot of other venues but the organizers rejected. The truth is that the organizers had no time to make all those applications for change of venue! Haha, Datuk Seri Najib Razak also mentioned the police did give good treatment to the supporters. Haha, this statement made me laugh  the most, which is so ironic to what we have seen from ample of videos released today.

The support to the rally is very well received, and I do agree with what’s the famous oversea media are reporting, from BBC to Al-Jazeera. What they have written and spoken on the event are in fact true eventhough they are not belonging to the country. Instead, it is the nationally-owned media over here that keep reporting ‘fake’ and ‘biased’ stuff, which I always get mad (sometimes funny) reading those, produced by retarded people who never give himself or herself a time to think properly. I felt glad as the support from people (mostly Malaysians) of other countries increased tremendously this time with them holding their respective rallies eventhough they are far from home. Overall, the rallies today were a great success! Thanks for all who came to show their support. To those who can’t make it, nevermind, we knew you have the same heart with us, to demand for change!

Highlight of the day: 428 Bersih 3.0 Rally

428 (28th April2012), a day that would carve its way into the history of the country, Malaysia. According to reports, more than 100 000 people gathered all around the city to show support to the Bersih 3.0 rally in objective of demanding for fair and clean elections. That’s a very huge turnout, almost tripled from the figure back over in previous rally hold in July last year. This clearly shows that more and more Malaysians started to show up themselves and protest against dirty elections which the government is reported to be involved in for so many years.

A positive demonstration with clear objective of staying true to democracy, and yet the government declared it illegal and forced the closure of Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) which is in irony of the name of the place which suggests the people of the nation have freedom, and yet being blocked access to the venue of the rally. This is an act of tyranny. Police forces came in to prevent the rally from heading towards Dataran Merdeka, and so just now, they fired ample of chemical laced water cannons and tear gases to the people.

Before this happened, everything was in enjoying mood and atmosphere, from Central Market, Petaling Street to Jamek Mosque and KLCC. The supporters have thought of many ideas used to support the rally, with some producing Angry Birds balloons (in yellow colour, the colour of the rally) and some raising up a lot of banners and flags (even opposition flags that supported this movement). This is what the government disliked; the involvement of opposition. But they came in with good objective, and the government sees it negatively.

I believe there must be people hurt out there. I checked the current news now and most of the crowds have dispersed. Before that, many of them breached the barricades placed all around Dataran Merdeka. It is called breaking the law by the government but it is called an act of freedom and wanted for change by people of good and democratic hearts. Many are even caught by the police who did things solely based on orders without thinking wisely on their own. All these are not only reported by our national media which reported things that are so biased to the government (and I’m getting sick of reading all those ‘shit’), this event gets international attention too with many oversea news channels reporting and participation of oversea Malaysians and non-Malaysians in smaller rallies of similar objective in many other countries. Below shows a video of the news reporting over the event at its beginning this morning at Al Jazeera.

I’m glad that many are supporting this movement. The rally may be no good and harmful to the image of the country, but it is essential and very much needed to give a sign and warning to the current government that we are not fear anymore, and we would stand up to prove that your days are numbered! We wanted for change, and the change would be particularly seen in the next upcoming general election. If the government wins the next general election, and looking at the ‘heat’ of this rally, I’m sure there must be some kind of dirty tricks going on.

428 would be a day forever remembered as a bright day for the Malaysians who wanted for cleaner election. It would be ‘black’ day for our present government. They kept quiet this whole day, pretending that nothing happens, but instead today’s event would give a serious impact to their stability. I didn’t go for the demonstration but my heart stays true to the objective of the rally as well. (it would be very hard to go since there are many roadblocks and even many of the LRT stations are closed, thanks to the offensive government orders that further provoked the anger and protest of the supporters). 428 further strengthened the unity of the people in demanding for a truly democratic country with clean and fair elections.

(All  the images in this post are  from Facebook, shared one by one and keep spreading through the world’s largest social networking site)

TVB drama review: The Greatness of a Hero

This Hong Kong drama is released oversea in Malaysia on 2009. I remembered I have watched few episodes at the time, but then I stopped watching it further, not because that it is not good, but because I’m seriously busy with my study at the time. It is finally released in Hong Kong this year, and so I take this opportunity to re-watch the drama as well.

The drama revolves on a legendary chancellor, Dik Yan-kit who gained the trust of the Empress Regnant (Mou Ze-tian) for being very helpful on matters, while that caught the jealousy of the empress’ nephew (Mou Sing Chi) who tried every ways (dirty ways mostly) to get rid of Yan-kit and with intention of having the throne. I like this kind of plot which would involves a lot of plans (either of brilliant strategies ones or even the dirty tricks ones). And yes, from this drama alone, we see how one goes against with another especially when having serious arguments over in the palace hall in front of the empress regnant.

Wayne Lai was not the TV King when he filmed this few years ago. But still, he delivered a very strong performance as the main villain of this drama. His expression and aggressiveness in the drama makes him fit very well to that character. Kent Cheng as Dik Yan-kit also did quite a good job in the drama, but he still don’t perform really well in some parts because his face hardly shows great amount of expression (especially on crying scenes). Credit is given to Rebecca Chan portraying as the Empress Regnant, Mou Ze-tian. Eventhough it is a supporting character in the drama, but she nailed the character with ‘power’.

I finished the ending not long ago and I find the ending to be quite enjoyable and exciting to watch, especially the moment when Dik Yan-kit with his family meeting the empress regnant in palace hall to seek justice for his innocent wife killed by Mou Sing-chi and to reveal all the bad things he has done. That part is breathtaking, and finally the evil Mou Sing-chi is given death punishment in the end. I like the part when his son came out and revealed all the things up against him and advised him to stop. It’s a good ending to them; peaceful death. The part I’m disappointed is the character of Sunny Chan. He just died like that, so quick with no depth to his death in the drama. Well, at least for Sonija Kwok, she had.

The only character I dislike from this drama is the daughter of Dik Yan-kit, portrayed by Bernice Liu. Her character is dumb and I hate this kind of character. She appears to be so annoying in the drama. Everyone else is smart and intelligent, while she is the only one making a lot of mistakes that lead to his father being blamed in the end. Overall, I like this kind of historical drama with content of fights, not literally, but through words and strategies. Out of 10 points, I rate this drama a total of 7.5.

Bersih 3.0 gathering ‘started’ earlier than planned

It’s night now in Malaysia, and it’s time to be at home or to go to bed. That’s not the case for many Malaysians tonight indeed. Many have went out to the city of Kuala Lumpur. What’s for? To support the Bersih 3.0 rally and its objective. The planned Bersih 3.0 gathering or rally at Dataran Merdeka tomorrow morning kicked off earlier and has started at this night itself, having more and more crowd beginning to enter into the areas leading to Dataran Merdeka from all directions. The government has ordered the closing of Dataran Merdeka this early morning which is an act of tyranny and further provokes the anger and protest of the people in support of Bersih. Image below shared from Facebook shows the current situation near Dataran Merdeka where around few thousand people started to gather around in support of Bersih 3.0 rally planned tomorrow morning. So, the gathering actually kicks off much earlier!

The intention is very clear. The supporters wanted for a fair and clean election, in which dirty tactics have been found out in previous elections in the country that heavily diminishes the nation’s image in loyalty to democracy. And yet, this very positive objective is seen as negative by the government that keeps blaming that it is a trick by the opposition to garner more supporters. This is so wrong. And so, the government feared of much bigger crowd ahead after learning from the previous Bersih 2.0 gathering last year, and they decided to close Dataran Merdeka, a prominent landmark of the country. But making the place a ‘lockdown’ appears to be so contrasting to the ‘merdeka’ which means freedom of the people, and now they are not letting people to enter. What a childish decision.

This night, the eve of the planned Bersih 3.0 gathering which is expected to draw much bigger crowd, people started to flock in to the surrounding areas in the city to show their support to the gathering, while I believe many came to take a look of what’s happening. Being busybody is every Malaysian’s charactertistic. Nevermind, that would just adds up more and more people in the areas near Dataran Merdeka. Even by now, I started seeing live updates of what’s happening there now, with ample of videos uploaded and status updated over at Facebook.

I believe there must be at least ten thousand of people joining the gathering, and the figure might jumped to a hundred thousand, looking at such a positive response from the people who made it clear now that they wanted political reformation and cleaner elections. The government now should be well aware as their days are numbered, only if they play fair in the upcoming general election. It’s very good seeing people started to join in hands together to make the gathering successful even as early as from this night itself despite being declared illegal by the government. That’s a good spirit! Keep it up, and save some energy for tomorrow’s morning, for the big event of the nation, the Bersih 3.0 gathering!

Movie review: Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)

One word to describe this movie; AWESOME! Way too awesome! Many would have very high expectation of this movie including myself, and I’m sure in the end, everyone would not be disappointed at all. I came in to the cinema with hope, and I left with satisfaction beyond my imagination that a movie comprises of many superheroes  which would creates some sort of complication delivers successfully in the end. The Avengers, to the movie itself as well as to the superhero characters involved in the movie, you rocks! I get to watch it today, on its first day of showing here in Malaysia which is released a week earlier than its official release in United States. Ahh, it’s one of my most anticipated films of the year.

It is actually a very good idea of bringing many of the famous Marvel’s superhero characters into a single film. By doing this, the movie receives incredibly high popularity, which gets most people talking about it months before its release to the big screen. I believe this movie would gross huge amount of money, and could easily topple down ‘The Hunger Games’ as the most successful film of the year as of current. It’s a truly satisfying to the Marvel fans and even to ordinary movie-goers and is an incredibly fantastic superheroes film that easily overshadowed the previous Marvel’s films that has only one superhero on each.

This time, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk in which previously these characters have their own movie(s) joined hands together with Black Widow and Hawkeye to form a team called the ‘avengers’ up against Loki, a demi-god who came from Asgard (brother of Thor) with intention to rule the world. It seems that he hasn’t finish his evil plan from the ‘Thor’ film, and he is back with much more emphasis on his character as the main villain  in ‘The Avengers’ film. The collaboration of all of them together creates some sort of spark, that ended up in some clashes and misunderstandings, some funny moments, and also for greater forces in the end on dealing with the evil armies in the film. That kind of spark is a good thing, and the film delivers that amazingly well.

The action scenes are awesome. It’s like putting together all the superheroes’ skills into one single film, and so it must be very exciting to watch. At the climax when the battle is started with the evil armies sent through the portal, every moments is breathtaking and my concentration just couldn’t get off from the screen. It’s just very exciting and how I wish that it won’t ends. The CGI effects are very impressive, and yes, we see another movie full of explosions and collapses after the ‘Battleship’ movie. But wait, this movie is better than ‘Battleship’. (Ahh, ‘Battleship’ is a good and exciting film also)

I didn’t came to just see how great each of the superheroes are, but also on how good can the ensemble cast performs, individually and in a group of the avengers. I am not disappointed on this aspect as well. The main casts did very amazing job with convincing performances. Ahh, but among all the avengers, I find the Black Widow to be the weakest and the Iron Man to be the strongest with his powerful suit. Ahh, you won’t see only serious and angry side of The Hulk from this film, as this character would gives you some funny scenes as well. Well, people said Captain America portrayed by Chris Evans is the most handsome among the male avengers, and I have to agree to that statement. Hawkeye is not the best in battle, but the way he shoots his arrows looks very cool. For the villain, Loki, I think he should be more powerful in this film. In the end, his evil plan is overshadowed by the huge and powerful armies sent by him which turns out to contribute more challenges to the avengers. But I’m glad that Loki is given quite a great emphasis on this film which is quite essential.

Ahh, and remember to stay for a while after the end credit started showing because there is a short clip after that which hinted the possibility of a sequel. That clip shows a creature in the end from the outer space that commands the armies sent down to Earth by Loki looks very angry with face of wanting for revenge. Overall, it’s an impressive superheroes film and I would seriously wished for a sequel to this film. It’s a fantastic film that brings us to a thrilling adventure of over two hours long. How about replacing some weaker avengers from this film with few much stronger ones to the sequel. Just my suggestion. But this movie alone already delivers. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Marvel’s The Avengers’ 8.1, making it as only one of the very few films in my reviews that scored over 8. Way too awesome! I would want to watch it again…

Dataran Merdeka closed from Friday to Sunday by government in fear of the Bersih 3.0 Duduk Bantah gathering

I expected this decision, and it came up exactly as what I foresee. The government had decided to close Dataran Merdeka from a day before the planned Bersih 3.0 Duduk Bantah gathering to a day after the gathering. Having this kind of action would only leads to further anger and protest from the people planned on supporting the gathering in objective for voicing out cleaner general election. And yet, the government continued with such dumb decision. Do you think that closing the area off would eventually puts a stop to the planned gathering?

(Image above showing Dataran Merdeka, the planned venue for Bersih 3.0 Gathering from http://www.travelfish.org/blogs/kualalumpur/2012/04/10/bersih-3-0-rally-in-kuala-lumpur/)

Definitely no. The people would just struggle through their way in, and I predicted that some clash would occur between the police and the supporters of the gathering this Saturday as similar to the previous Bersih 2.0 gathering. For the previous Bersih 2.o gathering, I thought earlier that it would not receives much support, but then ended up in a massive crowd of about ten thousands people in Kuala Lumpur. So, I believe this Bersih 3.0 gathering would receives much more supports and bigger crowd is expected. Any further action or decision by the government now would just further ruin their own image in front of all the ‘rakyat’.

So, starting tomorrow, no people are allowed to enter the area of Dataran Merdeka, one of the landmarks of Malaysia. Even tourists are not allowed. So sad, they came from so far, and yet they can’t enter due to government’s childish action. Don’t know why, but now I have some sort of bad feeling that much serious clash would occurs this Saturday. I’m sure the supporters of the Bersih gathering are much more stronger this time after learning from what they experienced in the past gathering (from those water cannons and tear gases fired previously), and I think they have reached their limit of being patient with the current government already. So, I’m worried there would be fights, injuries or even deaths.

Why the government would strongly oppose to a gathering that demands cleaner election? They always think that these supporters are being blinded by the opposition’s ‘promises’, but indeed much of these ‘promises’ are already being fulfilled in states run by the opposition parties. Instead, it is the government themselves that always used their controlled media to publish whatever good deeds they are doing, even at the smallest amount that contributes nothing to the people in the end (and I’m sick of reading those). The only reason that I can think of for going against the gathering is that the government is against clean election, which is totally wrong. There are a lot of evidences found out over the dirty tactics used in election, and we do realized that. We demands for clean and fair election. Be truly democratic…Are you going to the gathering this Saturday?

Datuk Seri Najib, no one would go against you and your government if no dirty tricks or tactics have ever been used. Think again.

The new Proton Preve is quite impressive, but the name is not nice and sounds a bit weird…

Just now after having lunch with my dad, we dropped by at a Proton Car Sales Center to take a look at the new Proton Preve. It’s the latest car invented from the national car company, Proton. We have no intention of buying it, but we went in just to take a closer look and see whether it’s nice and good or not. Well, it looks quite appealing to me, and I felt that finally a national car company could produce something like this, which is far better and is expected to be of good quality.

It’s a much bigger car than other Protons (Wira, Saga, etc). It is also much more spacious inside which allows for comfortable seating. The back of the car is also very spacious that could fits a lot of things in. Based on the brochure, this new Proton Preve has similar technologies and functions in comparison with oversea car products like Honda City. However, Proton Preve is much more affordable and economical, costing a bit over RM 70 000 only while cars like Honda City costs over RM 100 000 easily. And another great thing is that it has 5 years warranty!

No more key is required to start the engine of the car, as Proton Preve is equipped with a button for driver to press to activate the engine of the car. This is a good change as sometimes it is hard to rotate the key to start the engine of the previous Proton cars. Similar to other oversea cars, now the Proton Preve is fitted with dual driving systems; manual and auto, in which the driver can select which system to drive the car. For instance, my dad preferred on his old way of driving car by manual, and so manual would be his first choice. But then, manual driving would experience difficulties when going through leaning road or tiredness during traffic congestion. Hence, driver can now switch to auto whenever such conditions occurred.

Ahh,…I kept talking how good the car is now. No doubt it is a nice car, with a far more elegant appearance compared to the previous cars of the same brand. The cost is a bit much higher, but I think is very reasonable. But I’m now already satisfied with my Proton Saga (second generation), and so buying this Proton Preve would not be in my mind currently, or in my dad’s mind. My father told me just now that if you are interested, you have to work your own to buy it. The only thing that is not nice about the car is the name itself! ‘Preve’! That sounds awkward. I knew the intention of the name is to symbolise striving forward or something similar. But why not names it Proton Strive or other better names rather than ‘Preve’ which can be read mistakenly as ‘Pervert’ which many are now making fun of it through Facebook.

Insight: Shard London Bridge Tower

This building would be completed just in time in conjunction with the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games to be held in July this year. According to the schedule, the building is now undergoing finishing work on the top portion beyond the roof level and has already topped out to its final height. The building is estimated to be completed by next month, and to be opened to the public on June, a month before all eyes are set on London for the 30th Olympic Games.

This building is associated with many nicknames; London Bridge Tower, Shard of Glass, 32 London Bridge, and The Shard. Well, I like the last one, it is cool calling the building simply ‘The Shard’. The reason why the building is called ‘London Bridge’ as well because it is situated right next to the London Bridge station. The building has 95 floors, of which 72 of them are habitable while the remaining 23 floors above are for narrow plant floors. The building overall reaches the height of 310 metres, making it the tallest building in Europe and the whole European Union (EU). Well, it is only as tall as my country’s Telekom Tower which is the third tallest in my country. The images below show how ‘The Shard’ would appears at different times of a day in renderings. (Images taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shard_London_Bridge_night_and_day.jpg)

The architect behind the design is Renzo Piano, a famous Italian architect best known for designing Paris’ Pompidou Centre in collaboration with Britain’s Richard Rogers. Renzo Piano first started out by sketching an iceberg-like tall structure emerging from the River Thames, and he said his inspiration to that is from the railway lines next to the site, the London spires depicted by the Venetian painter Canaletto, and the masts of bygone sailing ships. So, that started out the development in his design which is going to be very futuristic and reflective when going on this design direction. Image below shows the rendering of the building’s concourse level. This would turns to reality very soon. (Image from http://www.origindesignstudio.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-Shard-Concourse-Mackenzie-London.jpg.)

Renzo Piano compared his design to “a shard of glass”. He considered the slender, spire-like form of the tower a positive addition to the London skyline, believing that its presence would be far more delicate than opponents of the project alleged. He proposed a sophisticated use of glazing, with expressive façades of angled glass panes intended to reflect sunlight and the sky above, so that the appearance of the building will change according to the weather and seasons. So, the use of glazing turns out to be very essential for his design. The completed Shard will contain premium office space, a hotel, luxury residences, retail space, restaurants, a 15-storey public viewing gallery, a luxurious spa and an open-air observation deck at the highest floor. The observation deck would be the highest in United Kingdom.

It will be the most prominent landmark and would becomes a new icon to the city of London. Standing proud over the neighbouring buildings, ‘The Shard’ is not only a tall building but also an exceptional design masterpiece of the highest architectural quality. It is a lovely futuristic-looking building, and London seriously needs this kind of tall landmark not only to further enhance the city’s picturesque setting and skyline but also as a sign to welcome or greet people around the world to the city for the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. And so, they built it! Amazing structure. The building blends in perfectly with the sky as well, as though the structure is transparent. Hmm…I like the ‘piercing’ top of the tower too, but it would be better if the topping ends much sharper and pointed towards the sky.

(The other images in this post not referenced right before or after are all from the forum thread of this building in skyscraperpage.com…click on each of the images for larger version)