Some assembly required

So I saw the Avengers twice this week. Needless to say that I loved it. I was really worried because Joss Whedon has been hit and miss for me. It's just amazing that this kind of movie was even made let alone that it's this good. It's quickly become one of the classic movies along the same lines as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But it is also the first time ever that four different movie characters over five different movies combined to form one amazing movie like some giant Voltron of awesomeness. It's just such a hard feat to pull off. That they planned all this from the beginning. Marvel should get some award just for attempting to pull this off. It was a fanboy's dream seeing the team come together. The shot of the team as the camera pans around them was not just cinematic it was a dream come true.

 Now with Dark Night Rises on the horizon I'm left wondering what DC Comics has planned for us. I had the feeling that they were waiting to see with Marvel would succeed or flounder with there attempt at creating a world of heroes. With the exception of Batman I feel like they're not off to a good start. I think Green Lantern was meant to establish this world given Amanda Waller's appearance in the film. Her presence possible being the Nick Fury of the DC film kingdom. It's too bad about Green Lantern. I had really high hopes with that film since Green Lantern was my sole reason for diving into the DC universe. I'd like to know how much of a role Geoff Johns played in the making of that film. Now I hear that Christopher Nolan's brother is involved in the story writing of Man of Steel. I hope to just be entertained by that movie given the director but maybe it can save the character and the DC film franchise. I think the DC fans are really hoping for a Justice League movie although I really don't see that happening. As much as I love the Batman films I don't think the DC characters will translate that well into film. I'd like to see a really well made Wonder Woman film. Heck I'd love to see and superheroine film done well at this point and as DC has a larger list of strong female characters I hope to see them come to light.

Back to Marvel. Now that Avengers has been a success I think the following Marvel films will get that "it's not Avengers" feel to it but I really don't care. Although I can see the Avengers making guest appearances in the next wave of Marvel films I'm still just excited to see these characters on the big screen. I really want to see Black Panther in his own film maybe with a tie in to Storm, since Storm is my favorite Marvel heroine. I think we can safely skip the Wasp as she has never been a huge character. I'd like to see Marvel buy back their rights to the X-Men and other characters like Spider-man and Daredevil so that they can introduce them into this larger film universe they created. I kinda see the next wave of films building towards Avengers 2 or Avengers: the Infinite Wars. Thanos is an interesting villain for the next film but I have faith in the Marvel franchise. Perhaps they'll build off a Dr. Strange and introduce Adam Warlock. It's an odd route to be sure as I never got into those character but it is a route. I'd like to see the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver be the next additions, along Black Panther of course. That would be the first step into cementing the X-Men into the Marvel univ erse. I think that the Avengers could use another strong female character and Scarlet Witch could do it, although I'm still pulling for Storm. Well until 2015. Avengers Assemble!

God bless the 80's!

So I've been thinking about how everything from my childhood has stood the test of time. Having grown up in the 80's, I thoroughly enjoyed my childhood entertainment. I had the pleasure of growing up with the first cartoon used to market toys with He-Man. Transformers were amazing. And mutated Turtles that new ninjutsu and ate pizza were the pinnacle of entertainment. I got to see Batman get transform from Adam West into the emo Michael Keaton version. The 80's was a magical time when the most amazing thing you can imagine would get green lighted into a cartoon or movie. Do you honestly think that Robocop or Dinoriders would ever see the light of day had someone proposed it today? I got to witness Jim Henson, George Lucas, and Steve Speilberg at their prime. Does anyone born in the 90's even know who Jim Henson was? Do you remember when Yoda was a puppet who people wanted to nominate for best supporting actor? Where were you when some had the audacity to make a film with an entire muppet cast and David Bowie? And it was amazing! 

The toys and merchandise alone were entertainment in and of itself. The commercials each had their own jingle, even if it just consisted of basically describing the product through song. It was always, "Something, something, amazing... the most incredible something of all!"
I kinda wish they'd bring back that 80's style marketing. Kids looking too excited to playing with the toys that squirted slime or adults sweating as they engaged in a game of Battleship or Nuke.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to some of these 80's toy marketing meetings. "What's hot right now?"
"Robots!"
"Dinosaurs!"
"Lazers!"
"Hmmmm..... what if we took Robots + dinosaurs + Lazers and = Dinoriders!"
"Success! Let the money rain!"
"What about story or plot?"
"Just copy the Thundercat story and add a frog with the voice of Dr. Claw and call it good. Or should I say ... gold?"
Like were people in suits and ties the ones who decided that bears would shoot rainbows out of their stomachs or corvettes convert into aircrafts with working missle launchers? Really???
Or were the 80's just the rejected afterthoughts of the 70's? How else can you explain man sized talking turtles who are ninjas and when they get a case of the munchies they grab a slice of pizza with whatever topping hits their fancy. Strawberry, jellybeans in peanut butter with extra cheese!
But the best thing about the 80's had to be from the overall acceptance of this commercialization. We were a generation of people who were brought up to believe in all things and to make your wishes come true. Anything was possible. Aliens were not only nice but loved candy and glowed in the dark. I remember thinking I would love to have a robot as a friend. Do kids still believe this or is this current generation completely jaded by the world that they inherited? If so, I apologize to the current generation. I'm sorry you had to grow up with this sense of disillusionment and I got to experience a cat eating alien from Melmac.

Resumes for fun and function

I've been working on more attractive resumes for myself and my wife. Here are the ones I've done for her and I'll post mine shortly. Hopefully shortly.

Drake vs. Indiana Jones

So I've been playing the Uncharted 3 game and realized that this will be the closest I get to a "true" Indiana Jones sequel. And it's actually written better. Video games have actually reached a place where they have surpassed film in writing an acting. Nolan North is both a great Jones and yet his own character that I as a player care about and want to win. The humor is genuine and the banter entertaining. I just realized this is why I don't professionally review games because I will go on and on about how good an amazing game is and how horribly abysmal another is. It's pretty much preaching to the choir. Which by the way, when you think about it, is not that bad. Of course most preaching is to the choir. It's normally the congregation that the preacher relates to anyways 90% of the time. Jesus preached largely to his own Jewish community because 1, they understood what he was talking about and 2, they were the ones who had lost their way.
Anyways back to Uncharted, I think they should never make a movie of it. But since it's pretty popular these days I'm afraid they will. Some things just shouldn't be movies. Alone in the Dark anyone? No, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, Farcry, Dungeon Siege. To be fair these are mostly faulted by Uwe Boll being a horrible director but most video games do not translate into good movies since games are fun for the interactive aspect vs. movies that rely on acting and story telling. Maybe a Monkey Island animated movie would be entertaining. But was there any question on whether House of the Dead or Doom would be despicable film? But then there are movies that don't deserve to see the silver screen but money conquers all. The Room anyone?
What about popular movie franchises that becomes games? Well since most are released beside their movie counterpart they are horribly rushed and bank on the popularity of the movie property, they of course end badly. Good video game movies are few and far between. Until the people who produce these beloved properties fully understand why they are popular in the first place we will continue to see more films that fail to live up to their properties.

Doing something

I've decided I need to be productive and do something. I've really wanted to do something entertaining that maybe someone else would find entertaining or amusing in some aspect or another. I've kind've been in a creative rut for a while now. I've been talking with some friends and casually been hinting at doing a podcast of some sort or other. I've been a huge fan of podcasts in the last 4 years or so and look forward to downloading my favorites every week. My favorites have been Diggnation and Totally Rad Show. What can I say, Alex Albrecht does it for me. I think it would be fun to have a job entertaining others by your own insights and inflections. Now both of those are video podcasts so I'm tempted to do something like that but bandwidth and editing could be an issue. My favorite audio casts have changed over the years. I used to listen heavily to PC Gamer podcast, and the Hotspot. Lately though my must have's have been Geekbox and Comic Conspiracy sprinkled with a dash of Smodcast, Adam Corolla show, and Catholic Answers live. I find my self being disappointed when my Geekbox and Comic Conspiracy casts are done. I wonder if this is a niche market. Am I only going to be entertaining me? I want to be able to advertise my friends while at the same time just have fun discussing stuff that entertains me. I liked the concept of Diggnation a lot but now that's finished and I don't want to just copy what they did with like Reddit or something similar. I want to do something where all my friends can have an equal say or comment on. I've been thinking of doing stuff in segments. Like having a comic segment, a movie segment, tv segment, internet segment. But I think I need to stay more general like the Geekbox. I'll just have to give it some more thought and reflection. Can my fun be someone else's fun?

Trolling first post

Trolling my first Blog! Yah! Trying out Blogspot for the first time. A little about myself. I enjoy almost all avenues of multi-media. I'm an avid comic book reader and hopefully someday artist. If you enjoy comics I highly recommend the Comic Conspiracy Podcast. If for no other reason than Ryan Higgins sounds just like James Woods. I enjoy video games, when I can afford them, and enjoy all kinds of movies and TV shows. I'm currently into Fringe and Boardwalk Empire. 
My hopes is to turn this into a place to show some art and get some feedback. We'll see where the internet takes us.


Stay tuned and God bless