The LEGO Movie turned out to be what I wanted it to be, which is good. The problem is, how to I begin to explain what my hopes for this film were? Well first, I certainly wanted something that felt definitive, something that wasn't just a LEGO movie but The LEGO Movie. It fit the part by having a good story that expertly mixed together a dramatic narrative with plenty of comic relief. And trust me, there was plenty of comic relief. There were so many jokes in this movie I would have to watc
Why not? Valentine's Day is a stupid holiday. Always thought so, always will. It wouldn't make a difference if I was in a relationship, because the things I value in a relationship transcend hearts and chocolate (although to be fair to chocolate, it is one of the greatest inventions ever). I mean, to have society try to associate your relationship with such a commercialized event that has seemingly nothing to do with relationships when you two are too busy doing something that's actually im
When you're from Mexico, you're either one or the other, according to Agent Sheldon Sands. Unless you're this guy. When you're Ricardo Mantalblán, you get to be a MexiKHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! 24601
Shirley Temple Black, best remembered for her collection of movies as an adorable child actress, passed away today. She's actually someone I had been thinking of a lot about lately and was on my list of favorite actresses and someone I always wanted to meet. I will miss her, but I am very happy for the life she led. It was a good life, a happy and fulfilled life. I have faith that she's in a better place now. The main loss is in the hearts of those left behind, that people like me only ever
Just when I thought I couldn't love this film more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC83NA5tAGE I think that this goes to show the standard Disney holds its films to. That it's been tailor-made for 25 different countries and dialects shows that their movies truly are event films. They are universal, and they unite people. Looking back at what Disney himself said about his films, I feel that the company has used their animated movies to continue the spirit of Disney animation, which
"Jingle bells, Batman smells! Robin laid an egg! The Batmobile lost a wheel..." These lyrics and and Adam West were the first impression I ever had of Batman growing up. I do remember the movie series that started with Michael Keaton and the animated series, which was ironically the most serious of these incarnations of the character, but my real indroduction to Batman was through the Adam West television show. The character was fun and I never tried to take him too seriously, so Batman Beg
Before I watched this movie, I made a point of not seeing a single trailer. I walked out of the theatres and changed the channel whenever a trailer for The Desolation of Smaug came up. Therefore, I can respect anyone who doesn't want spoilers for this film and I will try to avoid them as much as possible, even though there are things in here that I would love to talk about specifically. The first part of this review will consist of general impressions on how the film felt, and the second part
I just got done watching the second half last night, and really all I have to comment on are Clara and The Name of the Doctor. On Clara, she doesn't have much life to her and I wish that she was a bit more of a handful like she was in Asylum of the Daleks. Otherwise, she was just kind of there. On The Name of the Doctor...All I have to say is that the ending was -- WHAM!!! Yeah, it hit me like that. I've seen a fair number of twists on the show, but all of them had a certain character to t
For their 53rd canon movie, Disney managed to produce a really cool film. This film instantly hit home with me and will from now on hold a special place in my heart. How do I describe this film in words? There's hardly anything I can say without giving anything away, and you literally don't have to know anything about this movie beforehand to know that it's worth seeing. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out on a cool experience that you will regret down the road. This is Disney at
Mulan was one of the first movies I ever saw in the theatres, and to this day remains one of the most rewarding big-screen experiences of my life. This film was made to be larger than life. Is it the animation, the music, the deep and rich colors, the epic backgrounds? I don't know, but if I were to narrow it down to one thing, I would have to say that, next to some key moments in the Star Wars saga and the opening to The Lion King, seeing the Huns charge down the mountain slope was the most
Argo earned the respect of my difficult to please uncle and for that I wasn't surprised to hear that it won an Academy Award. Now that I've seen it, I don't understand it. The movie didn't stand out to me and didn't draw me in, nor did I get invested at all in what was happening. It felt small and trivial, and the end didn't have me cheering. The Academy Award it won for film editing seems completely wrong, since there's nothing special about it whatsoever. In fact, I didn't like the editin
When I was about eight or nine years old, I picked up a book called The Andalite Chronicles. I had seen similar books with teenagers turning into animals lining the library shelves. That was before the library burned down, but I always remembered those images. It was exactly the kind of thing to catch a little boy's attention. I didn't know what the stories were about, or what the pitch was, and what the implication was that they could turn into animals. Personally, I didn't even expect the
According to the first pages of Action Comics #1, Clark Kent's "physical structure was millions of years more advanced" than the ordinary human's. His strength was explained right away as being analogous to that of an ant's, which "can support weight hundred of times its own." His strength was, therefore, explained to be more a part of his "advanced" genetics rather than being tied to the physical demands of living on Krypton, which his species would have adapted to even when they were in thei
The movie lives up to the trailers, and Loki, thank Odin, is better than ever. The Dark World solves many of the problems I had with the first movie in the Thor series, which was a thurrough "meh." It also avoids many of the problems in Iron Man 3, in which Tony Stark didn't spend much time as his alter ego and the villain was a disappointment. So what did it get right? The Dark World takes place on an epic scope, spanning many battle locations and featuring a lot of destruction. There was
People will tell you that all you need is to be confident and good things will happen. Your plans will turn out the way you plan them. Your prayers will be answered. You'll ace your job interviews. You'll pass your test. You'll win the game. Others will like you and hang out with you instead of the other way around. I'm a manic depressant and an Aspie. I thought that being secure with myself was some grant life principle, the secret to all success. Especially when it comes to any and
I don't find How I Met Your Mother funny (though I would turn my head to watch whenever Cobie Smulders was onscreen) Joss Whedon isn't that good of a director. Even his ability to write characters is overrated, since there are plenty of people who have done an even better job than he does, such as the marvelous people down at Pixar. I don't like Mal Reynolds. I don't enjoy Nathan Fillion as an actor, or at least with the acting choices he's made so far. I don't like Game of Thrones. I
If I am going to set precedent and post a video on this blog, there is one and only one video on all of Youtube worthy of being the proverbial golden spike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfCJgC2zezw One day, I promise, I will write a song stylistically similar to this dedicated to the derivation of the quadratic formula. And I will use it as a love song to flirt with the woman of my dreams. 24601
Last night I suffered my worst nightmare. This is no figure of speech; I just had my worst nightmare, far exceeding any I have ever had before and eclipsing any I am likely to have since. My grandmother is a lovely lady who has been providing and comforting me for a long time. I'm very sad that I often do things wrong around her, that I often mess up her place and act immature around her when she wants the best for me. I hate myself when I don't succeed in my life because I know that she wa
A few weeks ago was RAGBRAI, for which I embarked on my own unofficial tour of the state of Iowa in salute to all of the people who officially took part in this event. I couldn't afford to be in it for real, so I started half a week early on a Wednesday, specifically July 17. I would stop at Sioux City on that day, and I figured that so long as I was there I might as well organize a Bible study with some friends. The results of that outing were actually the most interesting of all the things
I've known about you guys dating for a while, though I never knew you guys got engaged. It's totally weird to think about it. I can't remember if Turakii was my age or not. I always assumed you were, so I guess I didn't suspect anything. Then again, a bunch of my friends are getting married. It feels a little weird. It just feels a long way off for me. I just know I'm definitely not going to meet my future wife over BZPower. But I'll tell you what, guys. The when I get engaged, I will
There is a conversation I really need to have with my father. Mainly, I will be travelling down to Sioux City a week from now, and I want to take a car so I can bring my sisters with. There's someone I want them to meet, and vice versa. I don't have a car; my father does. Ever the compliant one, he absolutely will not let us use his stuff, and gave a flat "no." I wonder if I should explain to him exactly what's going on, but I'm afraid. See, a couple of days ago I mentioned the term "clo
We have justified his most famous weaknesses. We have examined the downsides to his abilities. Now it's time to invent some new problems for the Man of Steel. Considering that the Silver Age Superman was a bastion for creativity, it only seems fitting to be creative here and come up with some of the wildest things. First, however, there's a weakness that has been in the running for a while but has long gone unmentioned, something that just might be his next Kryptonite if authors choose to g
So I went biking on Saturday, and by now it's hardly news that I regularly bike 50 miles from Dordt College to South Sioux City, except this time I remembered something. Every time I had made this trip, I saw an old discarded spoon on the side of the road at about halfway to my destination. This time, as I saw it on the gravel shoulder of the road, I felt a compulsion to stop and pick it up, and I put it in my backpack. For some reason, I thought of a very specific friend when I turned it ove
While I am all for the godlike Superman common in books like All Star Superman and Kingdom Come, which manage to be masterpieces because of how they explore the implications of that sort of power, I recall the good old days when Spiderman was my favorite superhero and enjoyed him for how complex his powers were. Since the New 52 relaunch, Superman got downgraded considerably and now has more weaknesses. Of course, it won't change much about objections people have to him, since he's evolved to
