The Decade (Part 3)

This is the last part of my blog about the decade's bests. Part 1 | Part 2

Most Memorable Things In The Double-Zero Decade:

Asian Horror Movies. Last decade saw the emergence of Asian horror flicks which changed the landscape of Hollywood scary films. Audiences started to realize that Hollywood horror movies pale in comparison to their Asian counterparts. The Ring started it then The Grudge improved it. Many followed like The Eye and Shutter. But these proved one thing – special effects do not scare the shit as it was advertised to. Asian horror flicks provided a haunting, old-fashioned setting that disturbed the wits out of their viewers. Nevertheless, Hollywood – with the gazillion of movies it produces – had several awesome horror flicks. Here is my list of the best horror movies of the decade (gore-centric movies do not count.):

10. The Others
9. 1408
8. Feng Shui
7. Drag Me To Hell
6. Gothika
5. Paranormal Activity
4. Final Destination
3. Exorcism of Emily Rose
2. The Ring
1. The Grudge

Superhero Movies. If horror flicks improved tenfold, so did the superhero movies. Before, people were just treated with Batman and Superman movies. In the 2000s, film companies heavily invested on superheroes that are well-known up to those that cater a niche market. Nevertheless, it did well because we were able to witness superhero movies with very good plots (like The Dark Knight). Having too much competition always improves the quality and thus, I have my top ten here as well (by the way, I did not count V for Vendetta as a superhero flick):
10. Watchmen
9. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
8. Hellboy
7. X-Men
6. Iron Man
5. X2: X-Men United
4. Batman Begins
3. Spider-Man
2. Spider-Man 2
1. The Dark Knight

Ateneo-La Salle Rivalry. The greatest rivalry in the country got ignited in the past decade. This was the Super Bowl of local sports (Pacquiao’s matches are international so they don’t count). Advertisers were happy. Scalpers filled their pockets. Diehards were rejuvenated. In my whole life experience, Ateneo-La Salle crowds have got to be the most crazy in a sporting event that I have witnessed. The deafening cheers are there. The passion and intensity is infectious (I stopped being ill when I watched the games) and the class and respect is in there.

Best Ateneo-La Salle Game Witnessed: Game 3 of the 2002 Finals. It was not a close match but the historical relevance made it the best. If you are a Lasallian, I think the best for you is the Game 3 of the 2001 Finals. I was not able to watch that tightly fought contest because of a retreat so I cannot judge.
Craziest Ateneo-La Salle Game: Game 1 of the 2003 Playoffs. Why? It had the Tenorio-Gaco incident. Even some people in the crowd went nuts there.

Manny Pacquiao and his duels. No need for explanation in here. Manny is the greatest Filipino boxer ever and he has made us relevant in a positive way again.
Best Pacquiao Match: 2nd bout with Erik Morales. That match got Manny back on track
The Climactic Match: 1st bout with Erik Morales. Some may argue that it should be the one against Dela Hoya or Barrera, but Pac-Man’s lost to Morales humbled him. It actually made him practice to battle for longer matches unlike in his early career when he knocks out his opponents as early as possible. Manny became a smarter boxer because of this match.

Geek Power. Geek was (and still is) the ‘in’ thing in the latter part of the decade. You get to see geeks as the central characters in shows and movies making people emphatize with them and claim that being geek is cool. I think this somehow helps shape our society in a way – it encourages kids to stay in school. After all, smartass kids normally succeed well in their careers. Although geek life for the kids is not actually the best route (street smart and sociable people succeed better in my opinion), the nerdy way is still a good mentality. Here are the examples of prominent geek stuff last decade: Spider-man movies, Glee, Big Bang Theory, Weezer, Poker (yup, the probabilities), Fantasy Sports, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother (not exactly, but they were geeks when you see flashbacks of their youth), and Tina Fey.

Fantasy Sports. This game became automated and was revolutionized by Internet. Thus, you have millions of sports geeks playing it every year.

Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. This game went mainstream in the mid 2000’s when the World Poker Tour and Celebrity Poker shows were shown in our TV sets. Pokerstars.net further made it accessible to the Internet generation and voila! You have people of all ages gambling.

Health Awareness. Gyms boomed last decade with people becoming either more health conscious or more vain. It was common to see people buff up. Heck, if you compare NBA stars in the 90s to the ones now, you can see a major difference because athletes now are more buff. It does not lessen injuries though (actually, athletes now are more prima donna when it comes to their health as they sit out games more often) but it strengthens people. Not only do people go to gyms, some resort to running, yoga, pilates and whatever health improving thing there is.

LeBron James. The next best thing of the NBA. Actually, he already is the face of the league. He was advertised as the second coming of Michael Jordan and he was impressive. Not only is he a freak of nature who bulldozes the competition when he penetrates the paint, he is also a very good leader. I became a fan of LBJ after watching his first game. This was because he has that leadership aura and you can observe that he understands the concept of a team because of his unselfish play. Will he win a championship ring? The next decade will provide the answer for that.

But the best of the decade would have to be the advancement of technology.

Internet Blogs. As Internet Age continued in the past decade, computers were utilized to a newer level. Internet blogs became more prominent as several people have set up their own web and blog sites. Topics have become endless – males usually have their sports blog as they tackle and analyze the newest sports game they have watched. Teen girls blogged the latest entertainment topic - heck, there is even a show for that named Gossip Girl. Several people want to express themselves (just like yours truly). In this day and age, the spectrum of news and opinion has grown wider (but less credible). It might be for the better or for the worse (it might even kill the newspaper industry) but one thing is for sure – it is fun and it is easily accessible.

iPod. I can still remember myself being skeptic of iPods when these were first released some time in the mid 2000’s. Disc players were in use for more than a decade and of course, people love to bring their CD’s with the amazing covers. Those thoughts were crushed in two years time as every yuppie has it in their pockets playing tunes from hundreds of CD albums. That was how amazing it was to own an MP3 player. This was further improved with the iPod Touch/iPhone because you get to watch videos and use tons of superb applications. iPod is now competing gaming giants Nintendo DS and PSP’s with the iPhones innovative, fun and unique games. These gadgets are pricey but after owning an iTouch for a year, I can fully say that I got more than my money’s worth on it.

Torrents/File Sharing. Piracy went into a new level in the 2000’s as Internet users utilized technology by file sharing. We had Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa and Limewire as our source of mp3’s. Music industry suffered greatly because of this. People, on the other hand, got to save thousands of pesos. But the biggest of them would be the torrents. Now, people can download whole music albums, movies and seasons of TV series. I believe Torrent users have saved AT LEAST 100,000 pesos because of sheer piracy. Things have been so convenient for us in the past decade.

Community Groups. It all started with Friendster. Back in sophomore year in college, my blockmate added me to Friendster when it was not yet mainstream. In the following months, it boomed in Ateneo and I had a collection of hundreds of my friends. I soon quitted it because I did not find its use then. But with the advancement of the Internet age, webmasters came up with more useful personal sites that would put you into a network of past and present colleagues, friends, relatives and even your idols. Multiply had blogs, music, image and video uploads. It also became a website for budding businesses. Facebook and Twitter put it into a new level as people get to express their current status to everyone. Twitter was widely used by media in disseminating information.

Yahoo! Messenger. The best and most useful IT advancement of the decade. It was initially released in 1998 but it began as a widely used communication tool in the 2000’s. YM made us connect to our friends no matter where their location is. It is free and quick so it was more useful than text messaging. It was also perfect for the Internet generation because we love to multi-task. It is a possible distraction in work but to be honest, it is actually a good icebreaker tool for those who are bored. Whatever is more productive is better, right?

High Definition Television. I can still remember my grandfather amazed (and somehow wanting to stay more in our house) last Christmas when I showed him the bluray version of The Dark Knight in our HD TV. Why? Because it felt like cinema in our own living room. Anything of technology that could make an old man happy is good, right? Definitely. I was first skeptic on what HD TV could bring since standard TV seems good already. Well, that is the usual notion of those owning standard TV’s. “We do not need HD TV’s… as long as we get to watch our shows, it’s already fine. Blah blah blah.” Yes, that is true but HD’s change the overall picture with its size and dimensions. Wide screen definitely adds a lot to what you see. By now, everything square is minimal to me. The size of HD TV’s is superb because it feels like watching in a theatre. Watching sports is sometimes better than watching live as you get to clearly see the details of the stadium. High definition sound makes you feel it more as the subwoofer booms while the crowd chants “Defense!” in a basketball game. Although there are some setbacks (i.e., getting to see the elaborated facial flaws of the actors), high definition viewing has ultimately altered entertainment. It is not anymore just viewing – it is already experiencing.

Before HD TV, I was probably watching the TV for approximately less than an hour a day (this average could have been lower if not for UAAP basketball and NBA). But since I had an HD TV, my average time of watching it in a day is at around three hours. That is how amazing it is.