Shmee.Me

August 25, 2014

Man Of Steel Update!

I finally got around to watching my Blu-Ray copy of Man of Steel, and I would usually just give my impressions of the disk, but I will just say this. It looks look good. Zack Snyder uses a lot of filters, so it is a little grainy, but it is on purpose. It just will not be a movie I use to show off my TV’s visual fidelity. Instead of a disk review I am going to talk about the movie itself. FYI this post includes major spoilers, but hey the movie is over a year old.

A lot of people have a problem with this movie because they feel like Superman didn’t act a lot like Superman. He fights General Zod in the middle of Metropolis, and instead of directing the fight somewhere else, he throws Zod in to a bunch of buildings and causes even more damage. Making the already high body count no doubt go higher. Worst of all he kills Zod at the end of the fight.

On the city destruction thing, I give Supes a pass because he is just trying to stop Zod at all costs and he isn’t thinking about the consequences, and I am sure there will be consequences in the next movie. The Zod murder thing is a little harder to forgive. It is not something that Superman does. Plus it gets rid of one of Superman’s greatest enemies. Again I think Superman’s crime fighting problem solving skills are not at peak levels. He will get better and be the Boy Scout we all know and love.

The thing that this movie gets right is the action. The final fight between Kal-El and Dru-Zod is punishing, but the fight that is really impressive is Superman’s ultra high speed fight with Zod’s minions in Smallville. It really shows how outclassed humans are against these Kryptonians. The human soldiers keep shooting at the Aliens, but they are a minor nuisance to these super-beings. There is nothing they can do to stop or help Superman or his foes.

It was also interesting that Snyder really decided to focus this film on how humans would view Superman. It is what Clark’s Dad worries about. It is why Louis Lane drops the news story. They are all worried about how humans will react when they find out that they are not alone in the universe. But like Louis says “It didn’t matter in the end”. It doesn’t. Zod shows up and murders at least 30,000 people, and only Superman can save the day.

This movie has its flaws. It is really hard to deal with Superman killing someone, but there is more good here then bad, and I can’t wait to see how they clean all this up in Batman V Superman in a couple of years. I just hope that Superman doesn’t snap Batman’s neck.

August 11, 2014

This Blog takes place between 9:00AM and 10:00AM

Events happen in real-time.

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That my friend is the sound of inevitability. For eight seasons we heard the reassuring movement of time despite the best attempt of foreign terrorists, domestic terrorists, madmen with nukes, foreign plots, bioweapons, and moles to bring down the U.S. of A. No matter what happened between hour One and hour Twenty-four you knew that Jack Bauer was going to burn it out of hiding, grab it by the throat, and crush its larynx. My wife watched the first two seasons and then just rolled her eyes whenever she’d catch me watching the continued adventures of Mr. Bauer and the CTU (which is also the name of my new Synthpop band). Yes, Jack is indestructible. Yes, there is always a mole in CTU. Yes, someone from Division wants a report. Yes, they just hacked a kernel.

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Like death, taxes, and Chief O’Brien having to suffer at least once a season on DS9, Jack is something that is always true… an absolute in a world without absolutes. 24: Live Another Day lives up to the grand tradition, embraces it, and delivers exactly what those of us who have watched Jack Bauer and a revolving door of field agents do day after horrible day – to paraphrase Patton, “Make the other son-of-a-b&%#^ die for his country.” I think Patton and Jack would have gotten along quite well.

There’s no reason to go into what happened in this 12 episode season which took place in London, England. You’ve either already watched it because you are a fan, dismissed it because you are not a fan, or are a communist pig. 24 brings out absolutes like that.

What I can tell you is it was 24 and almost an improvement because they didn’t have 24 hours to pad with silly plotlines. Oh, there are silly plot lines for sure, they are just easier to ignore. It also brought closure to a lot of plot lines seeded throughout the whole series.

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Inevitable. They will make another 24. And I know I will be watching it because like sands through an hour-glass so are the days of Jack Bauer’s life.

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014

I Have Decided To Be Excited About Batman V Superman!

The Batman v Superman movie has a few things against it: it has a bad title, a Batman from Boston, and its precursor Man of Steel had its issues. Still we are getting a movie with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and probably Aquaman all together. That is something I never thought I would see. Even if this movie is terrible, it will still be a must see event, and something geeks have been dreaming about for years.

Sure Marvel has been killing it with their movies for a few years now, but the DC heroes are the most recognizable superheroes on the planet. Everyone knew who Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were before this comic book movie craze began. They are a legitimate part of American culture. Spider-Man is probably the Marvel hero that comes closest to them in notoriety, but he still isn’t that close. Wolverine? Maybe.

I know a lot of geeks are down on this movie because of all the reasons I listed above, but I think that is because this movie is such event that they don’t want to get their hopes crushed, so being pessimistic and snarky is easier. It is a little scary, but I would rather be looking forward to May 2016 instead of dreading it. I know where I will be Memorial Day Weekend 2016. Sitting in a theater cramming popcorn down my gullet, so I might as well be excited and happy about it.

August 5, 2014August 5, 2014

All Female Ghostbusters? I Am In!

So according to TheWrap the new Ghostbusters director Paul Feig wants it to be all female. This is a good idea. If they did a Ghostbusters 3 or a normal Ghostbusters reboot they would either have to try and get the old (and I do mean old) gang back together, or try and recapture the same “spirit” with a new cast, and both of those things seem to be impossible.

By using an all female cast it will create some excitement, and they will not have to deal with any preconceived notions of what the movie should be. They can do whatever they want because they would have changed things up enough. It may sound a little gimmicky, but sometimes a good gimmick is all you need.

Now the other argument is that we already have two good Ghostbusters movies (well a great one, and an okay one), so why do we need another one? Well those movies came out in the 80’s, so there is whole generation that still needs to be introduced to these movies, and by making a new one it keeps the franchise fresh and relevant. I hope this idea gets this movie rolling, because I would love to go to the theaters to watch the Ghostbusters!

July 30, 2014

EA Access Is A Good Start

Yesterday EA announced a new program for Xbox One called Access. Access will either cost you $5 a month or $30 a year, and in return for your hard earned money you will get “access” to a bunch of their older games. In this first round you would be a able to play Madden NFL 25, Battlefield 4, Peggle 2, and Fifa 14. Since I already own two of those games, it is not a very compelling package for me. Though they have said they are “working” to add more very soon. I am not sure what working means. It must be hard to allow people to download games or something.

On top of old games they will also give early “access” to new games, but unlike normal demos your progress will transfer over to the games. So if you are really excited about Dragon Age: Inquisition it might be enough to get you to try out the service. You will also apparently get discounts on EA games, though I haven’t seen any specific numbers for that. So if you really like EA’s upcoming lineup this might be the service you have been waiting for!

This seems like a no brainer move. It allows EA to leverage their old games so that you will be more inclined to buy the DLC for those games, or use your discounts to pick up the new ones. For now however, I don’t think the games being offered are enticing enough, and even though I love RPGs, I have never gotten in to the Dragon Age series, so I don’t really want “early access”. Once there are more games, and a better range of titles coming out for Xbox One I might be more inclined.

I would much rather have had this come from Microsoft or Sony themselves, so it wouldn’t just be EA games, but games from all publishers as well. They both kind of do it already with Games with Gold, and PlayStation Plus, but you only get a chance to activate those games for a month, and if you forget you miss out. It would be much better if the games kept getting added to a pool of “free titles” instead.

EA Access seems like where the future is headed, and even though I am not swayed by the service now, it will definitely be something to watch. Now if there was a super EA Access for $10 a month that gave me “access” to all their games and DLC, I would probably sign up. Somehow I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.