Jump to content

Velox

Premier Retired Staff
  • Posts

    4,319
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Velox

  1. @ Sumi -- lol, thanks? I say it a lot in conversation, so it fits for more informal things I think--don't really care about how it looks haha. *shrug* @ V1P2 -- You know, I've actually never seen anything by Aronofsky, surprisingly, but yeah, I'm just hesitantly optimistic. And yeah, as much as I really want to see films like, say, Iron Man 3, because I love superhero movies, or Lone Survivor because of Mark Wahlberg and the fact that the story is interesting, or Gravity and Frozen because of how much acclaim they've received...I'm probably most disappointed that I haven't seen The Book Thief yet, simply because it is one of my favorite books. Ah, well. I will eventually. @ TNTOS -- Oh, definitely agreed. And I think I like him as Smaug better too. But I think he was still basically the best part of that film. =P As for Catching Fire, definitely! I was really surprised at how accurate it was, especially because I didn't think The Hunger Games was all that bad (not a perfect adaptation by any means, but still, not horrible or anything), and yet somehow this managed to be so much better. @ iBrow -- 3&4. Yeah, I mean if I were to rate these films as objectively as possible, I'm almost certain they would be lower (at the very least, AUJ would be), but...like I said, I just really love Middle-Earth. =P And so I really, really enjoyed both. 5. Yeah, I dunno--I've actually never seen Wrath of Khan, unfortunately, so I'm not sure if I'll feel differently once I do. 8. Here I probably agree with you...this was definitely one of the harder ones to place, as I saw it most recent and hadn't seen some of the other films in a while. It may actually be before Into Darkness...ah well. The main thing was just that it got on my top ten list, as it definitely was an amazing film. 9. Yeah, there does seem to be a lot of criticism about it. Some of it very warranted, but even so I did end up enjoying it, even if not as much as I would've liked. 10. Yeah, same here...I mostly listed it because I thought it was better than Olympus has Fallen, and there weren't any pre-2013 films that were screaming out to me. I really want to see all the films I listed above and then see how this list would be different. Maybe some day. But anyway, definitely agreed this one is debatable to have on a top ten list.
  2. So, this list includes both 2013 releases and films that I saw for the first time in 2013, since I don’t think I’ve even seen 10 2013 films. Still, I saw a lot of new films that came out earlier, and I was really impressed with the films I did see that came out this year, so I decided to make just one list. Top Ten Films I Saw for the First Time in 2013 Saving Mr. Banks, by John Lee Hancock. I’m really surprised this is #1 on my list, but I saw this right as 2013 closed and was very pleasantly surprised. It’s really one of the greater movies I’ve seen, and both hilarious and heartbreaking. Following, by Christopher Nolan. Never saw this film until this year, unfortunately, but it really is an amazing movie. Especially considering the incredibly low budget. Will be talking more about why I loved it when I rank Nolan’s films soon. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, by Peter Jackson. I had some issues with this movie—more than An Unexpected Journey—but at the same time, the movie as a whole was fantastic, and I enjoyed it more than AUJ. I’ve had a review half-written for a while, so I’ll hopefully post that soon. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey—Extended Edition, by Peter Jackson. So I’m a sucker for Middle-Earth. But I did really enjoy this film. Star Trek Into Darkness, by J.J. Abrams. I really enjoyed this, particularly Benedict Cumberbatch. Serenity, by Joss Whedon. I love this film, and it’s a great end to a great series that really shouldn’t’ve ended. If I were to rate the series as a whole, including this as a “final episode”, if you will, it’d be higher, but as a film on its own it was still pretty amazing. In fact, if I were to rate it completely separately from the series, it might be between 8-10 on this list, but because of the series and the characters that I had grown to love, it's hard for me to rate this film objectively and alone from the series. I do have to wonder how much less I would have enjoyed it if I had not seen the series first. The Raven, by James McTeigue. This hasn’t gotten very high ratings, but I personally really, really enjoyed it. It’s a little hard for me to rank, so I’m just gonna leave it here before I change my mind again and put it under Catching Fire or Man of Steel (though it definitely wouldn’t be lower than Pacific Rim). The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, by Francis Lawrence. Quite impressed with this—makes me look forward to Mockingjay: Part 1. Not quite sure I agree with their decision to split it into two movies, though, but with the quality that Catching Fire gave, I’m hopeful. Man of Steel, by Zack Snyder. So there’s definitely some issues with this film, but overall I really enjoyed it, and I’m not entirely sure it should be this low but eh. I am concerned about Batman vs. Superman, and I hope it can be better than MoS. Pacific Rim, by Guillermo del Toro. Not a bad film, though not as good as I expected either. Still, it was definitely visually stunning, and giant robots fighting giant monsters? Count me in. I’ve had a half-written review of this done for a while now, too, so I’ll hopefully post that soon too. I may be forgetting some pre-2013 film I saw for the first time this year that was better than this, but I did enjoy this and it came out this year so eh. Runner-Up: Olympus has Fallen. The only film that came out this year that’s not on this list, but it was close—this isn’t an amazing film by any means, but it gave me exactly what I expected and wanted from a film like this. Worst film I saw this year: Transformers: Dark of the Moon Films I haven’t seen that came out this year, but want to and would definitely have competed for a spot on this list: Iron Man 3, Thor 2, The Wolverine, The Great Gatsby, Frozen, Lone Survivor, Gravity, Ender’s Game, Escape Plan, The Book Thief…Yeah, I haven’t seen as many 2013 films as I would’ve liked, unfortunately (though then again, the only films I saw in theaters this year were Saving Mr. Banks, The Hobbit, Catching Fire, and Man of Steel, so I’ll see the rest of these eventually). I wonder how different this list would be if I just ranked the top ten 2013 films, including those. Anyway: Top films I’m looking forward to next year (inspired by iBrow’s blog entry): Interstellar, by Christopher Nolan. Nolan’s my favorite director, and as usual for his work, this film sounds amazing. Captain America: Winter Soldier, by Anthony & Joe Russo. Captain America is probably my favorite superhero (tied with Batman), so I’m really looking forward to this. The Hobbit: There and Back Again, by Peter Jackson. Cannot wait to see the end of the trilogy. Gone Girl, by David Fincher. Fincher is one of my favorite directors, and while I haven’t read the book yet (hopefully will soon), it sounds really good. Mockingjay: Part 1, by Francis Lawrence. Catching Fire left me with high hopes. X-Men: Days of Future Past, by Bryan Singer. Guardians of the Galaxy, by James Gunn. The Amazing Spiderman 2, by Marc Webb. Wasn’t a huge fan of the first one, but the trailer for this one looks good. Noah, by Darren Aronofsky. Looks like it may be really good, and it has some great actors in it (Watson, Crowe, Hopkins…). Godzilla, by Gareth Edwards. Looks promising. Next up: Books.
  3. Velox

    its ocld

    Dude I wish we could have 55 degree weather here in Los Angeles. =P (but yeah, Californians are weak haha) But yeah, my sister lives in Chicago and they're having the coldest weather that they've had in 40 years apparently. Though she's lucky 'cause she's been with us for a few weeks and things are supposed to warm up a little before she flies back on Thursday.
  4. Velox

    2013: In Review

    2013 in Review So, I’m late on this, but I was out of town on/around New Year’s. Pretty great year overall. Read some great books, saw some great films, started watching some great TV shows, watched the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who, wrote a fair amount, met some awesome people, strengthened important friendships…in the end I’d say the good outweighs the bad overall. The first half of the year wasn’t all that great (one reason of which is because I struggled with my faith for a bit), but in the second half (like, August and later) I’ve had some of the greatest months yet. One of the biggest highlights for me was participating in (and finally completing/winning!) NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), in which I wrote over 50k words during November. I didn’t do nearly as much writing as I had hoped before this, and so being able to complete NaNo was definitely a great surprise. It’s truly some of the most fun I’ve ever had, and in addition, I have most of a novel finished. December turned out to be a crazy month for me (hence not updating this blog), but I hope mid-January (and later), once things slow down, I can finish the first draft and start working on some other projects I’ve been meaning to. Anyway, I’ve already ranted about NaNo a lot before, but it was really a great experience, and I’m hoping that it helps my writing (or frequency thereof) in 2014. I’ll be making a Top Ten list of books and films I read/saw in 2013 that were new to me, so I won’t rant about those here either. Instead, I’ll just end with what I got for Christmas: Some new clothes; most importantly, an awesome peacoat. I just really wish I could wear it more often, since it’s been around 80 for the past few weeks in southern California. -.- (though luckily it cools down at night, so I can wear it then at least) A really cool laptop messenger bag A “chocolate passport”. It’s a little box from Trader Joe’s that includes 8 bars of natural dark chocolate, each from a different country. They were all delicious New earbuds We saw Saving Mr. Banks as a family Man of Steel and Pacific Rim DVDs (2-disk special editions for each) Letters from Father Christmas, by J.R.R. Tolkien (from a friend). Even more proof (as if there wasn’t enough) of how completely awesome and amazing Tolkien was. Invisible Ink, by Brian McDonald (from a friend). A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Classics, by Charles Dickens. I had no idea he had written so many short novels/short stories/co-written short stories about Christmas The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov (B&N Leatherbound Collectible Edition; from my sister) Money. After which I went to a used bookstore and promptly used like a fourth of it. =P Here’s to a new year! I hope everyone had a great Christmas/New Year’s!
  5. Velox

    The Desolation of Smaug

    @V1P2--well, sure, it's debatable if all that was a good idea. =P My point was just that he wanted to add a bunch of extra stuff in, vs. just stretching out The Hobbit itself. But yeah, the whole love triangle in general was really poorly done, I thought, though I loved the inclusion of Tauriel overall--she had the potential to be (and indeed, was, with the exception of the love triangle thing) a really awesome character. But yeah, I'd agree with the Goblin Town escape (that really was just pretty over the top, even for a fantasy movie, though I don't think it was horrible either), but personally I really liked the barrel ride scene. Personally, I'm not against having a trilogy at all--more time in Jackson's adaptation of Middle-Earth, which I love. ^^ It's not the book exactly, but I do still enjoy seeing his adaptation. Here's hoping the third impresses...
  6. Velox

    The Desolation of Smaug

    Well, the film wasn't supposed to be just a stretched-out Hobbit. If they had done that, it would've been pretty terrible. But Jackson filled it with a lot of other stuff like from the Appendices of Return of the King, for example. It's expanding the whole world, and tying things into LotR more (completely agreed that it doesn't match the LotR films, though). So it's definitely not The Hobbit, not perfectly, but it's that plus a lot added--debatable whether that's a good thing or bad thing. =P But yeah, definitely better than An Unexpected Journey. And Smaug was just absolutely amazing--every moment he was on the screen was great. Benedict Cumberbatch was really the perfect choice for the voice, I thought.
  7. Saving Mr. Banks. Pretty amazing film. Didn't really have high expectations for it before seeing it (hadn't seen any trailers), but man--turned out to be really great.
  8. @ Ben--Cool, thanks for your thoughts/recommendations! I'll definitely be checking those out, and adding them to my ever-growing list of books to acquire. =P And at the Millennium Trilogy, yeah, I've heard the same. Though I've also had a couple people tell me they're a little hard to get through...not sure if that was because of content or writing style, but either way I do plan to read them eventually (probably once I find the third book for really cheap? In case they are really good, I don't want to have to wait to read the third one =P). But yeah, still haven't gotten around to reading many graphic novels. >_< I'll definitely be messaging you then, thanks! I think part of the problem is that a lot of good graphic novels are part of a series, and with all the other books/series I "need" to read...haha. Plus, graphic novels are generally a lot more expensive, because they don't usually have ones I'm interested in at used bookstores (at least, not ones that I know I'm interested in haha), and I don't buy many books new. Anyway, I do hope to read a bunch eventually, it's just the when that's the question. =P
  9. Niiice, some awesome books here. American Gods, Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Night Circus (and yeah, definitely so much great imagination in that book!)...all books I also read this year and loved. American Gods -may- have just barely missed the top 10 list for me (I'm still in the process of writing up a list/thinking about it), but even if it did, it was a fantastic read, I thought. Though I did love Ocean much more. As I told you before, I'm super jealous you got to meet Patrick Ness--I recently picked up More Than This, and though I haven't read it yet, it's the book I'm most excited to read this year. =P Also cannot wait for his short story in 11 Doctors, 11 Stories! Seriously, that book is going to be amazing. Ness, Colfer, Gaiman...and Doctor Who on top of that. XD Books on this list that I reaaallllyyyyy need to read, and have been meaning to, but haven't: Sandman, Ready Player One, and something by Rainbow Rowell (been hearing a lot about Fangirl--may start with that just because of how much it's being talked about now). I've heard those are all amazing, so I'm glad to see you think so too. Will definitely have to look into those other books, too.
  10. Well as I told you before, that Night Circus hardback really is beautiful--such an awesome find! Also that Steampunk: an Illustrated History looks really awesome--I saw it in B&N one day and just started flipping through it for a while. I'll definitely have to pick that up sometime. And the Dr Who book two books away looks cool...have you heard of 11 Doctors, 11 Stories? I'm super excited for its release (never read a Who book before, but considering this has Gaiman, Ness, and Colfer...figured it's a pretty darn good place to start =P). Serenity graphic novel! (and all your graphic novels/comics in general...that's one genre/medium that I'm sorely missing, since I only have Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye and stuff like Calvin and Hobbes, etc. but I don't really count those under that category since they're newspaper comics not comic comics). And Firefly: Still Flying! How is that one? I'm curious if you've read any of the following, and if so, what were your thoughts on them? Wizard of Earthsea (I have the third book in the series for this one, but am trying to find the other books at a used bookstore somewhere), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (have this but haven't read it yet--I feel like everyone I ask has a different opinion on it haha), and Boneshaker (don't have this but my friend does and it looks cool. Plus, y'know, Steampunk). Also Dresden Files! ^^ You'll definitely have to let me know when you get around to reading Storm Front! Anyway, looks super awesome! I really gotta get my hands on more Gaiman haha.
  11. Oops, guess I kinda forgot about posting here, plus I had finals and stuff... Well anyway, just got home from Midnight Mass, and considering it's nearly 5AM, I just wanted to quickly wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. ^^ Hope everyone has an amazing day! Christmas is most likely my favorite holiday--I just love this time of year!
  12. Already told you on fb, but Happy Birthday again, Nate!! Hope it's an amazing day. : D
  13. No problem! Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. =] Question answered; topic closed.
  14. 1. Showing pictures of LDD creations is totally fine--many people have done so in the past. To elaborate, here's a selection from the SBC Rules (and BBC Rules has a similar section) about what you need to post a topic: 2. You're allowed to use custom parts in your creations, yes. If it's part of a larger MOC, then it'd be best to just keep it in the MOC topic, but if you have a specific custom piece that you want to portray, you may post a topic in General Art. Here's a quote from the General Art Rules, where Ziko answers this question: Yes, customized creations like that go here instead of a Lego-Based Creations forum, since the customizing/art techniques are the focus rather than the Lego construction. 3. Punishment largely depends on the situation at hand. If I'm understanding your questions correctly, it sounds like none of these things would be against the rules (though if you have a lot of custom parts you want to show off, for example, it might be better to post them all in one topic rather than separate ones). Spam is a post that does not contribute at all to the topic or forum at hand. So posting your creations in other people's topics, for example, might be considered spam, but posting your own topics for your own creations would not be. Does that clarify things for you? Anything else I can answer? =]
  15. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Ahhhhhhhh.
  16. Happy birthday, Eli! ^^ Keep being awesome. : D
  17. I wish, but unfortunately, no, I just find them on Google. =P Glad you like them though. As for me, I've always loved Black Six's--it's just the perfect avatar that never needs to be changed, which I assume is the exact reason he doesn't change it. =P (except during username changes and whatnot) I'm also always a fan of Nuju Metru's avatars.
  18. Finished Raylan, by Elmore Leonard earlier today. Not bad, but not anything amazing either. Nice! This is probably what I'm going to read next--got my hands on it a few days ago. Ever since I heard about it, I've been extremely excited to read it, and once finals are over I'll finally be able to. The idea is pretty brilliant, and the book itself is just incredibly beautiful and awesome.
  19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcFo1wCZVaI Love this so much.
  20. ^Love that movie. Definitely one of my favorite Comedy films (up there with The Princess Bride, The Court Jester, etc.). Anyway, just watched Star Trek Into Darkness tonight for the first time after purchasing it from Amazon. Great film--Benedict Cumberbatch was amazing, as expected.
  21. Definitely agreed. Such a great episode.
  22. ~ :: :: ~ So I finished NaNoWriMo today. I got a little behind earlier this week, but then yesterday I wrote 5k, catching up and then some. And today, somehow, I managed to crank out over 9k (cue "it's over 9000!"), ending with 50,075 words a couple hours ago. I'm still in a little bit of disbelief that I wrote that much today, and the fact that I finished NaNo at all. Last year I only got 22k, and this year I finished seven days before the end, so I'm definitely super excited about that. The story itself isn't quite finished, but almost. It's got about 72k words total now, and will probably be another 10k or so, which hopefully I can finish quickly--maybe even during November, continuing the spirit of NaNo. Anyway, now it's time to watch Day of the Doctor! I've been ignoring it all day in lieu of writing. Somehow I've managed to stay away from spoilers so far.
  23. Velox

    Platonish

    Yeah, I really like what we've seen so far of this season. Really hoping it keeps up. Lol, I think it might be the bolding of certain sentences, which I've seen done a lot. It's actually really nice to read an essay/rant like that, because you can kinda skim the bolded parts and read the paragraph(s) around them when one sentence interests you. Decided to start doing that for certain things, as I personally prefer reading that way. Eh, I'd have to say I Love Lucy is the best sit-com. Now that's a fantastic show. Then again, I haven't even heard of Roseanne, so. =P
  24. Velox

    RIP

    Thank you, everyone. ='] Everything you guys said means a lot.
×
×
  • Create New...