Mad World

Sometimes its just easier to let music convey the emotions of the moment . To another night then......

Fighting the Storm

In the middle and in the dark. Sometimes its hard to see through the storm that rages around you. I can only hope that somewhere in this maelstrom are the answers and that those answers do not mean an end but a fresh beginning. Sometimes you just have to have faith in the ones you put your trust in to help weather the storm. It may not be the easiest road to travel but it is the best road because I know behind the dark clouds there is still a ray of sunshine just waiting for the day when things come together again. The nights may be long now but in the end it will all be worth it. To the days ahead then, riding out the storm one day at a time.

Looking Back/Looking Forward July 2013

Okay so I'll apologize in advance. This monthly preview blog will be briefer then most. Still getting back into the routine of some things after a crazy June so this won't have the level of detail of previous months but I still wanted to get something out there to follow routine.

Suffice to say last month ended up a little crazy and time seemed hard to come by. I blogged about my thoughts on the Man of Steel and soon will have my take on the fabulous game Last of Us once I have explored everything it has to offer. Other then that I think putting the past month behind me is prudent and much better to look ahead to July.

Unfortunately July is rather quiet in terms of my usual topics of interest. There are really no new games I have my sights on, no movies that catch my eye, and while there is still a small hope the Blue Jays carry on their winning ways and provide some fun baseball this once I still hold little hope for that. Dexter has returned for its final season on television and while not the show it once was I hope it goes out with a bang anyway and that will be the one show I keep tabs on this month. Other then that this month will be time to enjoy the weather if it ever stays nice and to perhaps catch up on a few games I've missed. Other then that while it may sound boring I think this month will be a time to relax and just enjoy certain things. Perhaps I will get my writing groove back finally and words will fill pages to fill up some of the time I have this month. Of course something will probably come up and ill have way less time then I suspect right now. Either way I'll try to catch up on some blogs around here and see if something interesting doesn't pop up throughout the month. If not at least ill be saving up on some money this month lol. Anyway stayed tuned for my review of the Last of Us and other then that enjoy the month everyone.

Man of Steel

Superman returned this summer to the big screen and I had the opportunity to see it this weekend. The good news is this movie certainly surpasses the previous disasters of superman 3 and 4 along with the most recent disaster Superman returns. Of course that's not saying much this those movies were pretty awful. Minor spoilers will follow on general plot points so if you want to know nothing before seeing the film stop reading now. Otherwise continue on to read my thoughts on the Man of Steel's return to the big screen.

Superman has never looked better flying through the air

I do think this was a successful reboot of the Superman franchise but the movie also has a few flaws that keep it from the upper echelon of superhero movies. Origin stories are hard to pull off since so much of the movie has to be spent introducing elements of the character and world. Thankfully with this reboot the film makers realized that Superman was a rather iconic character that I would surmise a majority of movie goers would have an idea of who the man was so while the story still involves a lot of back round on Superman's past its told in bits and pieces leaving the rest of the movie and plot to breath which was a smart decision.

The opening scenes involving the downfall of Krypton were beautiful and tragic and probably were some of my favorite parts of the movie. None of the scenes on Earth managed to match the beauty of Krypton even if the movie in general was as epic and grand as you would expect a Superman movie to be.

From there we bounce quickly around setting up some key scenes in Clark Kent's upbringing while bringing the equally iconic Lois Lane into the story and bringing General Zod forward in time to be an effective antagonist in the movie. In fact most of the actors were very effective in the movie with their roles including both father figures that played  into predictable outcomes we have seen before but done with enough added touches that they felt fresh and unique to this Superman experience. And while he may never approach Lex Luthor the choice of Zod was a good one here to connect Krypton's story the Clark and while never truly memorable there were moments were Zod was truly an intimidating force and worthy opponent for Superman first foray into battle a super villain with comparable powers.

 One of the qualms of the quick approach to story telling is that there isn't a whole lot of time to linger on some of these moments so the sense of impact feels lost because as soon as you start to feel something your quickly moving on to the next part of the movie which may very well have been unavoidable without making a very long movie or leaving out much time for Superman to be his true self.

The payoff  is that for the last hour or so we are treated to several battles involving Superman at his finest. His first battle against two Kryptons was really well done and the impact of all the moves was fun to watch. This really is the first movie that the fight scenes feel like they could come right from the comics of Superman since unlike say Batman who has relatively more cerebral fight scenes Superman tends to have more grand clashes involving tons of destruction and till now special effects just weren't at the proper level to convey these scenes. By the final battle it was starting to wear a little thin with how many times Superman crashed through a building but the final touch on the battle brought the idea of Superman protecting his humanity back full circle in a nice way and I thought set things up nicely for the future DC Universe wherever its headed next and at the end of the day that's probably the biggest thing this movie had to accomplish.

There were a few other flaws that did hamper certain parts of the movie. On a minor note some of the scenes involving the humans from the military or Daily Planet felt unnecessary and boring in comparison to other scenes and while its nice to be reminded of the human plight when you switch to seeing Superman and Zod destroying building after building it makes those scenes seem rather insignificant and silly. They easily could have been left out with no consequence. Perhaps the biggest flaw to the movie though was Lois Lane. First off while I think Amy Adams is a great actress she doesn't fit the image I have of Lois Lane. Now I don't mind that fact as much as the idea that we didn't get a lot of chemistry between Lois and Clark. There were a few nice scenes but their relationship just wasn't given a large enough time to develop in the movie leaving some of their final scenes to feel a little forced. Hopefully in the inevitable sequel more time can be spent on their relationship since it is a very important part of who Clark Kent is and given how much material had to be covered for the origin I can let this flaw pass in hopes that the sequel builds on the solid foundation made here.

Could these two iconic heroes finally grace the big screen at the same time in the future. Lets hope so!

So all in all this was a fun movie and anyone that is a fan of Superman or comic books in general  owes it to themselves to see it. While not perfect there is a lot to like about this new adaption including some fantastic fight scenes and a very comic book like feel to the atmosphere that is sure to please many fans. Lets hope this is just the beginning of a well thought out DC Universe set of movies that can compete with the juggernaut of the Avengers in the future. For now this was a good first step but there is a long way to go to truly honour these iconic characters. For now Ill take enjoyment on another solid late spring action flick and a fresh start for Superman that is faithful and enjoyable for audiences young and old alike.

Absence

For anyone that follows my blog you may have noticed its been a rather quiet month in terms of posts, in fact since June 1 I haven't posted anything. This has been because of many reasons. For one June just happens to be a very busy month in general and work alone is taking much of my time. There have been other unexpected distortions and events that have also hampered my ability and want to post here lately. Thankfully with some help and support from my friends  those disturbances are in the past and today felt like a good day to move on to looking forward at being excited for the summer ahead. I have many posts to catch up on. Thoughts on E3 and all the big news and games from the expo, my thoughts on the Man of Steel, and early impressions of the Last of Us just to name a few topics I hope to delve into before the end of the month. Thankfully in July things should quiet down and I will have more time to delve into certain hobbies I enjoy including a multitude of writing I wish to get back to. Even writing this feels a little rusty its been so long. Anyways for now I will leave it at that but I feel confident I will frequent this space a lot more before the end of the month with some tantalizing posts that hopefully provide some sort of entertainment for anyone checking it out. Cheers for now.

Looking Back/Looking Forward June 2013

So its not a perfect list to describe who I am but its pretty darn close

Well its June, the month of the Gemini and  one of my favorite times of the year.  Summer is almost upon us, work is starting to slow down and vacation time is fast approaching. Looking at the various entertainment opportunities available in June though is usually fairly quiet as the summer sets in but there are still a few  interesting things to talk about. Before that, lets look back at what May had to offer.


Well lets get the worst thing out of the way first. May was the official end of the Toronto Maple Leafs season. Now looking at the big picture the season was a success compared to expectations and its not like it was a surprise they lost in the first round of the playoffs. Unfortunately the way they lost was just about the most painful way they could snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I hope they learn from this defeat and it makes them stronger for years to come but I worry about how much of an opportunity they missed with such a historic collapse. It will certainly be a painful memory that remains with me for some time. Add that to the fact the Blue Jays have completely collapsed this season even though they were expected to fight for a championship and it really has become a case where the less I talk about sports the better.

Thankfully there were other forms of entertainment to save last month from being all doom and gloom. A couple good spring action movies came out that had flaws but still provided a good time. See my previous blog for more on them. Game of Thrones continued the strong season on television and remains my favorite show on TV these days. Video game wise it was a quiet month as expected but provided an opportunity to go back and play some smaller games or games I may have missed at some point over the past few years. I may blog about some of the best little gems I found this month later on. All in all though May was fairly quiet in a lot of regards which was just fine since I was rather busy with work and such anyway and didn't need to be getting distracted by to many other fun options.

So does June have more to offer then a quiet May? Well actually it will probably be very similar but there are a few things I am really excited for which will hopefully make the month exciting enough.
One thing I am not excited about though is anything sports related. The Stanley Cup and NBA championship will be rewarded but none of the teams left hold much interest to me and the Blue Jays would need a miracle month just to get back into the baseball season so lets move on to something else.

Its pretty hard to mess up Superman's logo but the newest one does look just a little cooler then in the past

Only one movie catches my eye for June but its a big one. The Man of Steel, yes another Superman movie but one that I actually have some hope for. Now let it be known I've never been a huge fan of Superman but there is no doubt he is an iconic superhero and deserves a modern series of movies of his own. That and if they have any hope of making a Justice League movie work they need Superman to be a relevant character again.  From what I've heard and the trailers released my confidence has grown that this will be a good movie. Can it be a great movie that stands up there with the best superhero movies of the past decade. Well I have certain doubts about that but I would love to see that be the case and I will most likely be going to see this opening weekend. Stay tuned later in the month for my thoughts on whether Superman has become cool and relevant again in the movie world and not the joke he has become based on the last few sad attempts on the big screen.

Television wise there are only two more episodes of Game of Thrones this season but boy should they be filled with some exciting events if their anything like the books there based on. I have no doubt this show will continue to impress. At the very end of the month Dexter will begin its final season and will hopefully fully regain the magic of its early seasons and provide a satisfying conclusion for another show I enjoy. I would imagine ill talk much more about this show next month when the season gets into full swing.

And that leaves video games. Well the summer is usually a quieter time for games in general with most developers saving the bigger titles for the fall season and closer to Christmas. That being said there is the odd game that comes out that goes against that strategy and thankfully this month has one of them. The folks at Naughty Dog produced an impressive trilogy when they came up with the Uncharted series and now they have been hard at work on a new game called "The Last of Us".  Lets see take the action and adventure from the Uncharted series and combined it with the survival horror genre. Well count me in! Suffice to say from what I've seen of this game so far I am psyched to get my hands on it. I have a strong feeling this title will be a Game of the Year candidate and hopefully make up for the complete disaster that the Resident Evil series has become over the past few years. This will most definitely be a day one purchase for me. Till then enjoy one of the trailers for yourself and will do this all again next month when summer is officially be upon us.

Movie Time

Over the past few weeks I've been able to enjoy a couple of the big spring action flicks to come out this year in Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness. Do they live up to the expectations of the earlier films successes or do they fall to the weight of certain expectations based on their predecessors. Well here is what I thought of both films anyway. Be forewarned there will be some spoilers to follow so if you haven't seen the films yet and don't want any spoilers I suggest you stop reading.

Lets start with Iron Man 3 which has become a rather polarizing movie between those that love it and those that find great fault with it. Honestly I can see both sides of the coin here. On one hand I thought it was a fun film with much of the exciting action and humour that made the first two films so enjoyable. The problem is there were some decisions made with this film that quite frankly I just can't understand why they were implemented. First off was the use of the character Mandarin in the film. I certainly am not an expert on some of the marvel universe but I do know the basics on who the Mandarin is in the lore of the comic universe. Now I am not one for caring if there are tweaks to characters and stories told from the comics but the blatant deception used with the Mandarin in this film was just baffling. I actually liked the idea of the character in the film but why they decided it was a good idea to trick those familiar with the character of Mandarin just to sell this film was baffling since he isn't in the film at all. I guess they did it to help sell the movie but honestly how many people  went to see Iron Man 3 because of Mandarin. And if you did well you would end up mighty disappointed in the results. I think they could have kept the essence of their story without such deception. Now we are left with a storyline that pretty much makes it impossible to ever use the true Mandarin in a movie because that would just make it more confusing to the overall storyline.

The second flaw I found watching the movie was how it finished. It felt like every major issue or problem not resolved near the end of the film was quickly wrapped up with convenient plot points just thrown in to provide a supposed 'end' to the Iron Man trilogy. It really felt like even if the story was far from really being over they felt like since it was the third film they needed to end many of the story lines that had come up over the three films and let left me thinking that it was a little forced and unnecessary since we all know Tony will return for the Avengers sequel and a few of those plot points could have been left to be resolved in a more satisfying way. That and I really just can't understand why he destroyed his hall of armours at the end. Yeah it was a strong message to Pepper but honestly without those suits her and Tony would probably be dead so I didn't see the logic of that decision. Perhaps I'm thinking about it to hard.



Cheer up Tony. You still have the next Avengers movie to look forward to!

 Now in saying all this I still enjoyed the movie. The action scenes were the best I thought in the series even if Tony Stark seemed rather over powered/lucky when fighting without the suit. That and there was a good deal of humour to be found in this film also that for the most part worked well. I guess in the end the one thing that kept me from loving the movie was a few decisions meant to twist the story in order to ensure nobody guessed what would happen but it felt like a cheap trick in the end that took away from the real story being told that would have been great if done correctly. Still the Iron Man trilogy as a whole was excellent and I certainly hope Robert Downey Jr. comes back for the Avengers 2 since it makes a perfect Tony Stark and Iron Man based on his work in these movies.

The second film I watched this month was Star Trek Into Darkness. The first thing I'll mention here is this movie hearkens back to the now classic Star Trek The Wraith of Khan for those familiar with the lore and for me that certainly wasn't a bad thing considering I thought it was a great movie for its time. This new take on the story was a great attempt at recapturing some of that magic while telling its own story. The movie was fun, filled with exciting action, some heartfelt moments that admittedly had me going a little teary eyed, and though some plot points stretched logic it still made enough sense in the Star Trek universe to work.



Thankfully this movie doesn't crash and burn like the Enterprise seems to be doing in this pic

Visually this film was stunning and showed a wide range of vistas from the bright and beautiful to the more dark and gritty tones that frequent much of the film. I found the acting to be top notch and the action and humour provided just the right mix to make this a fun springtime movie. My only real complaint and I treat it as a minor one is that the movie does re-tread over some similar plot points of the earlier film wraith of khan but the new twists and completely new actors have provided and updated version of that tale that should more then satisfy many Trekkie's and just fans of action films in general.


If I had to choose from the two films Star Trek is the one I would go see again but both movies I found to be worth the time and money despite some flaws and provided just the type of entertainment needed during this busy time of year. Now lets just hope superman can soar next month and provide some hope that DC can cobble together something meaningful before trying to pit the justice league against the behemoth of the Avengers.



Okay so this scene was just eye candy in the movie and its the same reason why I posted it here but is anyone really going to complain =P