Star Trek Into Darkness Review: No Spoilers!

Space, the final frontier.  These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, as it begins its second foray into theaters under the command of J.J. Abrams.  Here's the plot.  Member of Starfleet John Harrison (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks Starfleet and Captain Kirk (played by Chris Pine) requests to track him down and bring him to justice.  Sound simple enough?  Good, because this doesn't even begin to describe what actually goes down, including some serious S- hit the fan moments.  Lets commence the review.

1. (17%) Music: 

This was a really, really good score with some of the hits including: Sub prime directive, Meld-merized, and London calling which is absolutely ridiculous. The Star Trek theme from the '09 film gets an update that which influences the entire tone of the film. This score gets an 8.5 in my book.  

2. (20%) Acting: 

The acting was solid, there were some really good emotional scenes that worked well, and nobody screwed up.  Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto gave stand-out performances and definitely deserve the big bucks.  I'd give the acting a 9.25

3. (18%) Plot: 

I didn't dislike the plot and while it wasn't completely originally (but that's not necessarily a criticism) it was a plot that would be hard to duplicate outside of the Star Trek universe.  The plot gets a 9.

4. (21%) Execution:

Did it keep me on engaged? Oh Yeah.  Were there any twists? You better believe it.  Was it a little predictable? Yes for me, no for others that I've talked to.  It gets a 9.5.

5. (8 %) First Reaction:

This is the part of the review where I get to pat myself on the back.  When I first saw the first trailer the first thought I had was, "this is going to be the second best movie of the summer".  This was after I had seen the first Iron Man 3 trailer which I also really liked.  When I walked out the theater I thought this movie was better than I thought it was going to be, due to various reviews and comments I had read on the internet.  Note: don't trust everything you read on the internet.  Some people haven't the foggiest what they're talking about.  I digress... I give my first reaction a 9.25.

6. ( 8%) Special Effects -

 The special effects were really good, the only criticism I have is that I don't like the blue lines left in space after the Enterprise goes to warp speed (or whatever its called).  It bothered me a little bit so I'll give the Special effects a 9.

7. (8%) Character/Story Development-  

With a cast this big (the crew of the enterprise + villain) it's extremely hard to give everyone a character arc of substance.  Fortunately, some of the minor characters (anyone who isn't named Kirk or Spock) seemed to have changed from the first film which created a illusion of character development during the film.  Also, the story of the film managed to challenge aspects of the protagonists that differed from how they were challenged in the first film, which was refreshing to see.  I'll give it a score of  9.

The Verdict:

Using my extremely intricate grading system, Star Trek Into Darkness gets a initial score of
90.9.  My gut says that this is an accurate assessment of how much I liked the film so we won't average the score out this time.  I highly recommend this film to anyone looking for a film with great action, great character moments, some humor, and a slightly more serious tone than a film like Iron Man 3.

Also, I may have mentioned this earlier but just because movie A has a higher score than movie B, doesn't necessarily mean that I like movie A more than movie B.  With that being said, if movie A is Star Trek Into Darkness and movie B is Iron Man 3, then yes I did/do/will like Star Trek more than Iron Man 3.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Star Trek Into Darkness = 90.9 Enterprises out of 100. 

Graduation Recap.

As the vast majority of you know, I graduated from PVCC last Friday.  This is your promised behind-the-scenes look at graduation.

3:50 pm
My mom wanted to get some pictures before I left (I had to get there early) so we had a quick impromptu photo-shoot.   It was fantastic (heavy sarcasm).

 Bought that shirt all by my lonesome.  

 What's that, you want me to look serious?  Okay.... you asked for it.

 That hat thing was awful, the stringy thing kept hitting me in the eye.

 In the background, Mom's being Mom

 When it's unzipped, it looks like a Sith robe.  

I... Will... Not... Smile.... 

So once this was done, Christina, my extremely well-paid chauffeur, and I departed for John Paul Jones arena, aka UVA's bball stadium.  When we got there, I walked in and then traveled through several dark corridors, 12 flights of stairs, seven mountain ranges, and a black hole before I found the check-in tables.
After collecting a variety of items including two yellow cords that would make a great jump rope, I was herded into a waiting room with all of the other graduates.  After waiting around with friends for about 45 minutes, some of the staff attempted to get all of the graduates into two lines.  Unfortunately, this idea was dependent on 400+ people remaining absolutely quiet which didn't exactly happen.  After this 15 minutes semi-debacle we finally were all in line.  After waiting another 10 minutes (for a total time standing up of approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes) they finally let us walk in and take our seats.  The rest of the official proceedings were your standard graduation fare, so I'll spare you all the details and you can watch the highlights by clicking this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t11YoHqGmHw&list=FLmcXAihUKFJVYT1T5wGShTA&index=1

After graduation ended, they had a reception behind where the speakers were, so I headed over there as quickly as possibly.  My mortal body was weak, I needed sustenance.  After getting some food, I took some pictures and talked with some friends before I left to go home.

Well, that's pretty much all of what happened.  Here are the pictures that I have from the reception.  Oh, and the next post to expect will be my Star Trek Into Darkness review.

 This is Me, my classmate and fellow PVCC Student Ambassador (and graduation speaker) Jesse, and my fruit plate.

 Just after I got off stage and got my diploma case.

 Me and Jon Bannon, the man personally responsible for making sure I didn't fall asleep during Humanities 202.

 Ok, before y'all freak out, I was NOT trying to flip off the camerawoman (aka Maria).  I was trying to do peace like Jon, but my index finger is holding a peace of cantaloupe.  What can you do, stuff happens (and no I wasn't going to put down the cantaloupe).    

My former bball teammate Tre, back from Cali

 Which of these is not like the other...

 My PVCC Student Ambassador boss Kemper Steele, aka the greatest game show host this side of the Mississippi. 

 My broski, who commandeered my Sith lord robe, and big sis.

 At home now

Douglas: How the heck did he get this thing on???

 Me and Dad

 Me and Dad... the sequel. 

 #1 son, #2 child; Dad; and #1 daughter, #1 child

Second verse same as the first.

Man of Steel Preview

OK party peoples, it's time to get pumped up for this summer's must see movie: Man of Steel.

At first, I thought about writing a post explaining all the reasons you guys should go see Man of Steel.  Reasons like Christopher Nolan's (director of the Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and Memento) involvement as a producer, Zack Synder's (the director) reputation for stunning visual affects, and that the first promo poster for the film had Superman getting up from being slammed into a bank vault door.

But then it occurred me that you all don't need to hear me say why you should go see this movie.  You need to SEE why (as they say, seeing is believing).  So let me show you why you should spend your hard earned money watching this film.   Enjoy and prepared to be awed (in every sense of the word).   Oh and your going to want to click the full screen button at the bottom right of the videos.  You'll know why once ya do it.

Iron Man 3 Review: No Spoilers!!

Iron Man 3, the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be born in a post-Avengers world.  Did it live up to the hype?  Is it worth your hard earned money? Yes and Yes.  Now, this is a spoiler free review so let me explain how this (and all future movie reviews) is going to go down. 1) I will give a brief plot description. 2) I will use my custom made rating system to give the film a score and explain what I liked and disliked about it. 3) Any other thoughts I have.

Allow me to briefly explain my rating system.  The system I will be using for Iron Man 3 will be my standard comic book movie rating system.  It has seven categories, although the categories have varying degrees of importance.

Sound simple enough? Lets get to it!

Synopsis

The film takes place around 6 months after the events of The Avengers.  Tony Stark is experience PTSD type symptoms as he adjusts to a world were he is no longer the biggest, baddest thing in existence.  Terrorist attacks by a villain known as the Mandarin force Tony out of a semi-self imposed exile in order to combat demons from his past and protect those he cares for the most.  

1. (17%) Music: 

 While the score has some good songs such as Stark, New Beginnings, The Mechanic, and Can You Dig It; it does not offer a lot of variety.  Many of the songs are good because Brian Tyler, the composer, came up with a great Iron Man theme that he stuck in almost every single song.  Since the good songs sound so similar I can't praise the music as much as other films (namely Inception and The Dark Knight Rises).  I gave the score a 7/10.

2. (20%) Acting: 

The acting was very good, although some of the characters weren't really given the chance to show off their range.  Obviously Downey Jr. was the star of the film and he doesn't disappoint;  although, I did think there were a couple of scenes that seemed off to me. Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley were great; Pearce really took the film to a different level with a couple of his scenes.  Don Cheadle, Gwyenth Paltrow, and James Badge Dale all turned in solid performances as well.  The acting gets a 8/10.  

3. (18%) Plot: 

Aside from my earlier plot synopsis I really don't want to say much more about the plot.  I liked it and I thought Tony Stark's character arc was appropriate considering what had happened to the character in previous films.  The villain's scheme was pretty interesting and served as a nice obstacle for our protagonist.  The plot didn't knock my socks off and there weren't any major twists so I can only give the plot a score of 8/10.

4. (21%) Execution:

For some reason, it took me a while to get engaged in the film.  For some reason, the narration of the opening scenes really didn't work for me and I thought the pacing was off a little bit.  After the first major sequence (you'll know it when you see it) I was fully engaged and all systems were go.  I'd give the execution an 8/10.

5. (8 %) First Reaction:

I came out of the Theater very impressed and satisfied.  Well worth $11.50 to see it in theaters.  9/10.

6. ( 8%) Comic book-ness -

This category is for all the scenes that remind you of what you would see (or want to see) in a comic book.  This film had them in spades.  10/10.  

7. (8%) Faithfulness to source material-  

I am not a huge Iron Man fan (from the comics) although I do own the first 10-15 issues in one big collection.  With that said, I am familiar with a particular character who appears in this film and the comic version of this character is significantly different than the movie version.  For what its worth, the film version works, but I was a little disappointed by the change.  Therefore, I'm going to have to take 2 points off for a score of 8/10.  

The Verdict

Using my custom rating scale gives Iron Man 3 a score of 80.7 out of 100.  Personally I think this score is a little low so I will average it out with my gut score of 85.  This gives us a final rating of 83.  I really liked Iron Man 3 and it's definitely worth seeing in the theater at least once.

Well that's all folks, look for my Man of Steel preview tomorrow evening or Thursday.  I hope success has been following y'all around like a stray dog. (If you don't get why I put this you need to read my How To Catch Vermin series, check the archives).   

Blog Orientation 2.0

Hey everyone.  I'm re-posting a previous (and edited) post because a)I changed some things around and 2) I have some newbies reading the blog.  In this post, I will familiarize my blog followers (aka blogowers or folloblogs) with everything this blog contains, with the exception of the blog posts staring you right in the face.

First, at the top left of your computer screen there is a search box.  You can use this to search for old blog posts or a series of connected blog posts.  For example of you want to read my entire How to Catch Vermin series, you can type that in the search box and all of my posts will come up.

Second, the Share button next to the search box allows you to share this blog with your friends on Twitter or Facebook. (Because no one uses email anymore).

Third, there should (and I stress, should) be a "Follow This Blog" button so you can...... follow this blog.  It's pretty self explanatory.  I can't see this button so it may not exist, but I send out emails whenever a new post goes up so its not really a big deal.

Fourth, below the title and new description of my blog you will notice my "Pages" section on the left.  I currently have four pages titled "Home", "My Photos: Mi Familia, Make Yourself Feel Good and Know That Your Smarter Than These People. You Are, Right?" and "My Favorite Political Quotes" (which is probably going to become "My Favorite Quotes" shortly.  Home is the page you start out on with all the posts, My Photos Mi Familia has pictures of me and the fam, and the other two pages have some nice reading material.  To get back to the main page you can click BACK below the end of the page.

Fifth, on the left of the blog posts (and below the pages section) on the main page are three sections: Followers, Blog Archive, and About Me.  The Followers section shows my followers,  The Blog Archive categorizes past posts by month and year, and the About Me contains a little info about yours truly.

(Now listening to Kashmir by Escala .... I wasn't typing that fast, I just pause a lot.)
Sixth, at the bottom of the blog their is a little extra info about myself including my favorite PVCC classes and favorite books.

Lastly, below Favorite Books is the weekly poll.  Every Monday, I will put up a new poll and reveal the answer for the past weeks poll.  This week's poll is about my favorite vacation spot.

Well, I hope someone found this helpful.  Now everyone should be able to navigate this blog like they do their bedroom when it's dark and LEGOs are on the floor.

See you next time, same blog time, same blog channel.

Hello Officer...

DISCLAIMER 

*** Certain details of this historical event have been fictionalized for your reading pleasure ***

It was a calm spring day.  Birds fluttered around the trees as the sun began its descent.  I drove down route 250 on the way to a get together with my parents new life group from church.  As I was driving, my mom received a phone call from my dad, alerting us to a cop on the side of the road.  Being the focused driver I am, I didn't notice when we passed him.  However, just after we passed him, I noticed several black ravens circling over a dead carcass.  A shiver went down my spine as I contemplated this omen.

Shortly after this, I noticed said cop car behind us.  For some strange reason my spider senses immediately began to explode.  At first he he simply followed behind us, but once his lights went on I knew we were in the middle of a S.H.T.F. moment (hint: S is Hitting The F).  My mother was just as confused as I was; I had followed the rules of the road perfectly and their was nothing wrong with the car.  After I had pulled over, the cop proceeded to exit his vehicle and saunter up to the car.  He then informed us that the van still had 2012 tags... in 2013.  Despite my mother's vehement protests that this simply wasn't possible (it was) the cop took our license and registration and went back to his car.  After spending a few minutes stewing in the car, I noticed the cop returning, and my spider senses told me he had dire news.  The tags were in fact out of date and the ticket would go to.... me, the driver of the vehicle.  I had already suspected this eventuality so my inner shock was disguised by my calm veneer. The cop was a pretty nice dude so I harbor no ill will towards him.  He was only doing his job after all.

While my dreams of having a perfect driving record are gone, the ticket won't add any points to my driving record so its really not a big deal.  Also, my parents will be paying the fine since getting new tags didn't exactly fall under my realm of responsibility.  This incident has taught me one thing I'll never forget (in addition to always check the tags on the car):  When the S hits the fan and your wearing clothes you don't care about it always pays when someone else is willing  to  pay for the dry cleaning.

Next time on "This mortal body has grown weak, I need sustenance":
Iron Man 3 Review -  Look for it Tomorrow!
Man of Steel Preview-  Look for it Wednesday!
Graduation: The Real Story- Look for it Thursday/Friday!

MIA in M.I.A.

Today, the family and I went out to dinner to celebrate mother's day and my graduation from PVCC (Recap blog in transit).  After debating where we should go for the majority of the morning, we finally settled on Made in Asia, a fairly new American Chinese food restaurant in Zions Crossroads.

OMG! ( or OHMAGORSH!)

That place is freakin' fantastic! The egg rolls are not only filling but also full of complementary flavors.   I got the Happy Family which consisted of Chicken, Pork, Beef, Scallops, and Shrimp along with assorted vegetables and a side of fried rice.  It was delectable.  My Dad got General Tso's Chicken and I just about shut everybody's front door once I tasted it.  I mean, the chicken tasted like chicken! It was incredible! The staff was extremely friendly and the decor was quite nice.  I can't recommend this place highly enough.  I would say more, but the food really speaks for itself.

 

So, if I ever fall of the face of the earth and you guys need a place to start searching there's a pretty good chance you'll find me here; passed out on the floor with egg roll crumbs lying around me.

Which of These Things is Not Like the Other...

Which of these is not like the other, which of these needs to die?

Glazed doughnut. Chocolate covered glazed doughnut. Chocolate covered glazed doughnut with sprinkles.  Cake doughnut.


Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.  the widely heralded Cake "doughnut ".  Hmmm, what's that?  "Christopher, why is doughnut in quotes?"

Well, as much as I hate to break it to you... Cake "doughnuts" are a wolf in sheep's clothing; a deception perpetrated by the people who told you Santa Claus is real, the ozone layer has a hole, and Mission Impossible 2 is a must see film (it isn't).

Now I know what you all are going to say. "Christopher, this is absurd.  They look exactly the same and they both taste delicious".

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Bishop from Aliens and the Terminator all look as human as Hicks and Kyle Reese (who are actually played by the same actor) but they're both robots.  A cake doughnut does indeed have the external qualities of a regular doughnut, but on the inside... its different. Its special.

A cake doughnut is cake batter put in a doughnut form.  A glazed doughnut is a doughnut in its own form.  A doughnut is a doughnut. Cake is cake.

As far as taste is concerned, they do not both taste "delicious".  One tastes like eating an angelic cloud sprinkled with sugar which comes from the dandruff of baby cherubs while the other tastes like eating a box mix from the Cold War.

Now that I have clearly dismantled the petty arguments of the cake "doughnut-alists", I want y'all to get a real doughtnut, eat it, and then thank the baby cherubs for saving their dandruff for us.

One Day Later....

Hello party peoples, I hope you all are as unburdened by petty concerns as I am (probably not).  For those of you who don't know, last night concluded my time at Piedmont Virginia Community College.  The semester is over, its a Tuesday, and I am scotch....tape free ;).

Some of you may be asking, "So Christopher, what did you do to celebrate your new found freedom?"

Excellent question.  Lets start at 10:45 pm last night.

First, I watched the most recent episode of NCIS with mi padre while I ate some left over chicken, rice, and spinach. The episode was excellent, combining subtle character development with intense action that culminated in a "Oh no she didn't" moment that should lead into tonights episode.  I'm on pins and needles.  Between commercials we watched the end of the Spurs-Warriors game, a delightful double overtime thriller punctuated by  outstanding individual effort by Stephen Curry, and textbook execution by the Spurs. Mi padre had temporary laptop troubles so I played COD:BO for a couple minutes while he got IT to help him out.  We then proceeded to watch NCIS: Los Angeles which was a little disappointing.  While it delivered its standard quota of humor and touching moments between the characters, it was lacking in the fist-a-cuffs department.

Once this ended, we watched NBA tonight with Charles, Kenny, EJ, and Shaq and listened as the astutely analyzed the night's playoff games.  Dad left to go to bed around 1:30ish and I was soon joined by Christina.  We proceed to have a short conversation about the upcoming Superman movie Man of Steel (In theaters June 14th) before she to abandoned to embark on a journey to the sweet embrace of bed.  I however, was prepared for this development and proceed to watch the Big Bang Theory until 3 when I finally decided to hit the sack.

I slept like a baby and got up at noon, although I had already been awake for about an hour due to extraneous noise made by the fam (but that's part of the the gig).  After eating a sparse breakfast of Kraft macaroni and cheese, I watched Drew and Jared for about an hour.  We cuddled, played basketball, and finished our time together as I sat Drew on our exercise ball and bounced him up and down as Jared waited patiently for his turn.  Once mom got home (not a moment to soon as I was quickly running out of things to do), I proceeded to have some fun.  First, I got Douglas' science book and quickly confirmed that I had been lied to for the majority of my biology class this semester, not exactly a news flash but still unsettling.   I then proceeded to read the first chapter on the physics section of the book (it was on motion and force) in order to discover approximately how much force I would get if I jumped off a ten story building and had the power to manipulate kinetic energy (I'm currently thinking at least 622 newtons of force but I'm still looking for an appropriate equation to use, I'll keep y'all posted on my discoveries).

As I was scrolling through future pages, I saw a table with Morse code so I copied it down so I can learn it over the summer.  So far, I have all the numbers completely memorized (1 = .----; 2 = ..---; 3 = ...--; 4 = ....-; 5 = .....; 6 = -....; 7 = --...; 8 = ---..; 9 = ----.; and 10 = -----).

After I finished reading my chapter (and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich),  I got online and ordered the first two seasons of Heroes for my Dad ( don't forget to pay me back ;).  Since I was already there, I also pre-ordered the Man of Steel limited edition score along a B. Reith CD and a few other items.  Then I went on to my blog to write about it.

Well that's all for this post since I have currently caught up with myself.  I now must call Mom to let her know that Drew's awake and I will probably be getting him up and feeding him a cereal bar of sorts.  Since the semester is over, you all can expect new posts coming near-daily but no need to bookmark this page, I'll be sending email alerts whenever a new post goes up.

Here is a list of this week's upcoming posts:
The day I got my first driving ticket...
Iron Man 3 movie review
Graduation preview.

I hope y'all have a splendid day and I'll talk/see/write to y'all later.

P.S. (Happy B-day Douglas!!!!)