The Dark Knight Rises Review

It is 4:07am and instead of going to bed like I should...I'm writing this blog about The Dark Knight Rises.
I could just say that it was a fantastic movie and leave it at that, but then that doesn't really describe the movie.
To start off, I will say that I think Batman is going to rake in a LOT of money. The AMC Tyler was showing this movie in all 16 of its screening rooms! That's a lot of people all there for the midnight showing! Oh and they were completely sold out by the time the movie started.
Those of us in line got free poster, then as we entered the IMAX theater we got another poster that was only given to the IMAX viewers.
Then the screen goes dark and the Preview image lights up and all of us fall silent. What are they going to show us? Will it be a good movie, like James Bond, or a stupid movie, like Frankenweenie?
First preview was The Bourne Legacy. Looks awesome. Definitely will see it.
Second preview was James Bond Skyfall. Yeah, I need to see that.
Then was a preview for the Disney movie OZ The Great & Powerful. This looks amazing and I'm really looking forward to it!
The crowd quiets as another preview is about to start. Suddenly cheers erupt as the DC Comics logo illuminates the screen! Yes! It's Superman: Man of Steel!!! Oh what a wonderful tease to show us! I'm already planning my midnight showing for that one!!
But wait, it was Batman we came to see. Oh yeah, okay back to the review.
It has been said that this Batman movie was better than the other two. When it comes to storyline, action, special effects, character development of Batman...sure I'll agree to that assessment. But I will say that when it comes to villains, NO ONE will top Heath Ledgers Joker. However, Bane sure gave him a run for his money!
The villain, as you have been told is Bane. Bane is a complex character in his fighting prime. He goes against Batman..who is no longer in his prime.
The entire movie takes place 8 years after the last movie. With numerous flashbacks The Dark Knight Rises makes it easy to bring the previous two movies into the story without crowding it or being cheesy.
What you expect to happen, doesn't always. What you think they wouldn't do, they do. The twists in the plot are numerous and don't always happen when you think they should. Some twists you think are coming...never do.
This movie had fight scenes that weren't too fast as to be a jumble of images and then, "Oh look, he's down. How did that happen?" But they also weren't too slow to make you think, "Man, this is cheesy."
There are a few things that you need to be aware of though, and NO I will not spoil anything for you.
In fact I'm going to help you.
Pay attention to the words being spoken and try to shut out the music or background sounds. Why? Well, it may be just the theater we were in, but there were a few times that I could not follow what someone said because of the musical score or the background sound. The sound in our room was quite loud, though that made all the explosions and rumbles vibrate right through your body.
Also, Bane was sometimes difficult to understand, even without background noise or music. Yes, he's wearing a mask, but pay attention anyways.
One thing I heard a lot of people being worried about was Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I need to point out something here. Christopher Nolan never said she was Catwoman. He even made a point in one interview to say she was Selina Kyle. But wait, you say, I thought Selina Kyle was Catwoman. And you would be right, dear reader. However, though referred to as a Cat Burglar, and even asking a man she pinned to the wall if, "the cat got your tongue?" Not once in the entire movie (that I can remember) is she referred to as Catwoman.
Why do I point that out? Only to say that as Selina Kyle, who is a catburglar who is truly just coming into her own prime as such, Anne Hathaway did an excellent job as playing this character. A character that is still on the ropes between good & evil and live sup to the comic book description of Catwoman as an anti-hero. A hero who doesn't always follow the rules or law.
Did Christopher Nolan really end the Batman saga? Yes and no. There is no cliffhanger at the end of the movie. No special scene at the end of the credits. But there didn't need to be. Nolan ended the movie in a way that seemed to satisfy all the fans in the audience as cheering and whistling and high-fives were issued from the crowd who sat spell-bound and mostly silent throughout the entire movie!
Will I see this movie again? Absolutely!
Do I think it will beat out the Avengers for highest grossing movie? It has a strong chance.
Is it my favorite Batman movie when compared to the other two? Yes.
Should you stop reading this and go see it? Yes...but do me a small favor.
Today, July 20th, is my Mom's birthday. So if you go see this movie, no matter what day, tell the ticket taker, or concessionist, or ticket seller, that you are there to see Batman in order to celebrate a birthday. If they ask who. Tell them, "Josh's Mom." Then walk away.
I hope you enjoy the movie and I hope this review helped make your decision. It's now time for bed and I am going to sign off.
Good night and have fun at the movies!!

Disneyland Rant

Keri and I have been going to Disneyland for years. It's a fun and exciting place to be, but it also offers spots of relaxation and great places to sit and people-watch.
Sadly, our Annual Passes expired this month and, due to rising costs, we are not going to be renewing them this year.
But to get the full use of our passes we have gone 3 times in the last month.
During these trips I did a lot of people-watching and have decided to write about what I saw.
People are rude.
1. Whole families will suddenly stop right in the middle of a walkway to talk and look at the map of Disneyland. Folks, it's just like driving a car. If you are going to stop and look at a map you don't do it in the middle of the freeway! Pull over and/or get off the road and then take a look!
2. People with strollers full of sleeping children head right down the middle of any walkway and leave barely any room on either side of them for people to walk or move around. Then those same parents get frustrated when people don't get out of their way. There is even that "sigh" that "accidentally" escapes them when they realize that they are the ones who have to move when someone is coming down the concourse in a wheelchair or a stroller. It's called Sharing the Road, people! Just because you are pushing something on wheels doesn't mean all must give way to you.
I've been to Disneyland many times with people who needed to be in a wheelchair. I've been the one who did all the pushing and I can tell you that I know how to thread my way through a crowd. But I also know that I do a lot of apologies when I know that I'm getting too close to people in a crowd. I try very hard to look ahead and see what obstacles are coming and I make sure to swerve ahead of time in order to not have to deal with those upcoming issues.
But why do I feel like I'm the only one?
3. Did you know that there are hundreds of trashcans and recycling cans ALL over the park? Did you know that this means there is NO reason for you to crumple up the napkin or map or whatever paper substance you have in your hand and then just let it drop on the ground? Maybe the next time I come over to your house, when I'm all done drinking that soda, I'll just toss the can behind the couch! Sound good? No? Then why are you doing it at Disneyland in front of countless people who just saw you litter?!
4. At Disneyland (and actually most fast food places) the menu is posted up high for all to see so that as you stand in line you have something to read and time to make your decision on what you want to eat. Yet, it baffles me why there are so many people who get up to the counter and slowly read the menu, craning their necks in order to see something they've had in perfect view for the last 10 minutes. And then they ask questions about what is on the burger when that is listed on the menu! Even better is, later getting my drink filled, I overhear them tell their spouse how irritatingly long they had to wait to order! Yeah, dude, like you're really all that speedy!
5. While people watching I have been accused of looking at scantily-clad women even though I'm sitting or standing next to my wife...and it's true. I do look. But truthfully not for the reasons you think. You see I'm at Disneyland, where there more children then adults. Where the sun is shining and it take a bit of walking to get from one place to another. Where the rides can mess with your hair and all of them you have to get in and sit down.
So it boggles the mind to try to understand some peoples choice of fashion! Several times I have seen women arrive at Disneyland wearing high heels! Lady, I hope you brought band-aids cause you are going to hurt by the end of the day!
Then there are those who wear their pants down around their knees and three pairs of boxers are plainly visible. It must suck to have to go to the bathroom! Not to mention you look like you already dropped a load in your pants so you lowered them so it doesn't smear all over you!
I've seen shirts that were so low-cut that everyone knows what kind of bra you have and if you get a sunburn you would have a stripe going down past your belly-button.
I also enjoy watching the "goth" horde go through the park. Wearing all black, tight pants, tight everything, lots of chains, and it's over a 100 degrees outside. Yeah, you thought this through, didn't you?
As for what people consider the "normal" fashion of wearing pants that are just above the hip line, or shirts that are barely reaching the top of your pants...granted it can look sexy, but not if you are pulling your shirt down every minute or hitching up your pants everytime you walk or sit. If you wanted clothes that didn't need to be adjusted every few seconds you should have worn bigger clothes.
Now to clarify, I love Disneyland and one day I hope to get our Annual Passes back, but sometimes it's liberating to rant about something and hope that someone out there spreads the word and maybe one day I'll go and there will actually be "walking lanes" just as there are "passing lanes" full of people in tennis shoes, sweat pants or normal shorts, and long non-see-thru shirts all sharing the road and throwing trash in a trash can.
One could hope.

The Marvel Movie Marathon and the Avengers Movie Review

What a day! First I picked Matthew Fanning up and we went to the theater, arriving at 9:30am. Already there was quite a line, but as bad as we thought it would be.
At about 11am they started letting people in to the theater. We checked in and got a free pair of Superhero Character 3D glasses. I got Captain America and Matt got Iron Man. The other choices were Hulk and Thor. We were also given a schedule of the start times for each movie in the marathon, a lanyard and badge that said we were part of the midnight showing, and a free Avengers comic book.
We went into the screening room and got our first surprise, the screen was an IMAX sized screen. Apparently they couldn't advertise that it was IMAX because IMAX is a company and this screen wasn't supplied by them. So, though it was called a STX screen, we all knew that it was an IMAX sized screen. So we stare up at the 60x80 ft screen and realize we paid $40 for 6 movies...in IMAX! And we got just the right seats! The room filled pretty quickly and as the time for the first movie, Iron Man, approached we all started counting down. The lights dimmed and our second surprise of the day came on screen.
AMC Theaters had got Clark Gregg (aka SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson) to do an introduction for each movie! Agent Coulson welcomed us to the 16 hour Avengers members debriefing and started us on Iron Man.
I've seen these movies all before but to see it again on the big screen...excuse me, the BIG screen, was great! A room full of dedicated fans, some dressed the part others not so much, all cheering and laughing at the right times...I can't possibly describe how great these "geek-fests" are to me.
A quick break and Matt went to go get some popcorn. He came back with a Large cause after all we are going to need a LOT of popcorn!
Then Agent Coulson came back on to introduce the Incredible Hulk movie. More cheering. It was good to see this movie again as the big screen helps you see and hear things you may have missed the first couple of times around.
Whew! It's time for a stretch!
This time it was my turn to head out for a soda. Got the large. You know why.
Just to throw this in there I will tell you that if you ever do a movie marathon like this make sure you follow my example and take a bathroom break between each movie whether you need to or not. It garaunteed that I wouldn't miss any of the movies.
To cut things short I will skip to just after Iron Man 2 when we were given a 45 minute break. They said it was our dinner break but it was also so they had time to switch to 3D format for Thor, Captain America, and finally, The Avengers.
Matt left to take a walk outside and get some air. While out there he found that Chipotle was open so he got us both burritos. Funny thing is, he snuck the burritos back into the theater but it turns out they weren't checking any of us. Apparently they knew we would be doing this but as we have been spending the whole day there they just didn't care.
A delicious dinner and then back into the movies.
After Thor and Captain America I left to get a refill on popcorn and soda. This is when I got our next surprise. Turns out that as long as I had the badge on that said I was here for the marathon than I got free UNLIMITED popcorn and soda refills! Sweet!
But the time has come to talk about the Avengers movie!
There are SPOILERS in here so if you haven't seen the movie yet, stop reading!!
What I'm going to do is talk about the "easter eggs" in the movie and also try to help explain some of the questions that people have had about the movie.
First off, this movie was awesome!! There is action, a little romance at the beginning, drama, and comedy, and to top it all off it'srated PG-13.
There were nods to all kinds of comic book references and instances and I thought the overall storyline to be spellbindingly good!
My two favorite lines came from Captain America. The first was when Thor arrived and took Loki off the quinjet and Iron Man got mad and went after them. Just as Captain America started putting on a parachute to go after them as well, Black Widow tells him to not get involved as those two (referrring to Thor and Loki) were basically "gods." To this Captain America responds, "There is only one God, ma'am, and I'm sure He doesn't dress like that." Brilliant!
The next great line was just two words. The Avengers are down on the street and surrounded by bad guys. Iron Man tells Captain America to "call it." Captain America then proceeds to tell each member what their individual plan of action should be. At the end he gets down to the Hulk who is obviously itching for a fight. He gets the Hulks attention and the Hulk looks irritated that he is being held back, when Captain America says, "Hulk...(points towards bad guys)...smash." The Hulk grins and launches himself into the air and proceeds to rip bad guys to shreds! So cool!
However, I have to say that the two best scenes showed the genius of the writing of this movie. Keep in mind that Joss Whedon, who is a genius in my opinion, helped write the script and is a major fanboy himself. So throughout the movie you are constantly struck with how close and accurate the characters are to their comic book counterparts. Everything they do in the movie is exactly how us fanboys envisioned them doing and acting had our comic book heroes come to life.
The being said, there is a scene where Loki is in Stark Tower and suddenly the Hulk comes smashing through the windows to pummel Loki. Loki gets up and berates Hulk for touching him and claiming that he (Loki) is a god and how DARE you touch...at which point Hulk grabs Loki by his foor and proceeds to turn him into a rag-doll by whipping him back and forth against the concrete and steel floor. At one point he holds him up to see if he is still alive and finding him so, continues to pummel Loki into the ground. Loki is left on his back, imbedded into the floor, with a look of pure shock and horror for having recieved the beating of several lifetimes. Hulk simply walks away with the appropriate words, "Puny god." growling from him. Classic!! Hulk doesn't care about social status or claims of deity. He exists to smash and that's what he does!
The last scene comes at the very end of the credits. Now to be exact there are two scenes in the credits. The first is a preview of the villain for the next Avengers movie and that scene comes at the end of the Main Character credits. I will explain that villain later.
But at the end of the List Credits is another scene that caused all of us to lauch for nearly a full minute. During the movie, after surviving a near death experience, Iron Man tells the others of a Schawarma place that he wants to try. But told they had unfinished business to attend, he then says that afterwards he definitely wants them to have schawarma. So at the end of the List Credits it shows them all, fresh from the fight, tired and bedraggled, sitting around a table in a little diner that advertises schawarma, eating. I love this scene because not one word is spoken but the looks on their faces says so much. You can see that Captain America is wiped out, Thor looks like he is tired as well, Bruce Banner gives a little smile at one point probably amazed that he was able to semi-control the Hulk. Just the whole scene makes the group seem even more real and at the same time, it made you think you could just pull up a chair and join them.
All in all this movie will go down as one of my favorites for a long time!

Now for some answers and reveals.
-In the beginning of the movie you find Nick Fury with someone he calls "Hill". This is Maria Hill his Assistant Director of SHIELD.
-I loved the subtle hint of Captain Americas strength when he casually picks up a punching bag with one hand and hoists it up to hang.
-Tony Stark tries to pretend to be a Life Model Decoy when answering a call from Agent Coulson. A Life --Model Decoy is a reference to life-like androids that were used by SHIELD agents when going into suicide missions. They looked and acted exactly like the real person they were imitating but were not, in fact, alive.
-Oh and incase you didn't know this from before, but Jarvis, the artificial intelligence that helps Stark run everything, is actually based on the live person who was a butler for Tony Stark in the comic books and later became the caretaker of the Avengers Compound.
-The bad guy at the end? The one who sent the Ch'Tari to try and subjugate humans? That ugly face belongs to Thanos. According to the Marvel Encyclopedia: Thanos is a 6'7", 985 pound, red eyed, purpleish skinned conqueror. He can synthesis ambient cosmic energy for use in a variety of ways, from increasing strength to firing energy blasts. Oh and he is obsessed with Death. He envisions Death to be a beautiful woman that he wishes to love and he is devoted to her. So...telling him that to confront humans is to court Death...well that basically garauntees that he will attack humans again.

So what is next? No idea. I do know that Iron Man 3 is going to start filming in the next couple of months as will Thor 2. No word on any other movies regarding the other Avengers members.
As for who will be in the next Avengers..that's a good question as there are plenty of characters to choose from. However there are a few hints at the end of Iron Man 2. When Tony Stark is in a room full of monitors waiting for Nick Fury to arrive, one of the monitors is a world map. On the map are points of interest. One is Malibu, California (Iron Man). New Mexico (Thor), Arctic (Captain America), Norway or Sweden (possibly Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver), New York (possibly one of several characters including: Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Widow, or even the Fantastic Four), Africa (possibly Black Panther), and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (possibly Namor the Sub-Mariner).

Now the question is...have you seen the movie yet?

True Story of Observation (stolen from The Brain Tickler)

A man sat at a metro station in Washington D.C. and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes into his performance a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinists recieved his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother was dragging him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.
Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45-minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell (www.joshuabell.com), one of the top musicians in the world. He played one fo the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats went for an average of $100.

This is a real story. Check it out online when you get a chance and you will find that this social experiment revealed a remarkably ugly truth about today's society.
The next time you are out and about, stop and listen to the music, smell the roses, and notice the beauty around you...before it is no longer available.

Transformers Upgraded...part 6

Right after the first Transformers movie came out I was online reading what was suggested as being the original script of the movie. In it I read that when Bumblebee scanned a passing Chevy Camaro that scene was not in the original script. In the original Bumblebee actually hacks the GMC database and downloads the specs of the concept for the new Camaro.

This brought to mind something that I felt needed addressed.

If you were a shape-changing advanced alien robot that can alter your shape into anything you can download the specs to, why would you only change into GMC products?

Granted GMC paid for the chance to advertise their new vehicles for the movie, but let's leave rality out of this.

Now, you are an advanced alien robot that can probably download anything we can imagine and (even if our technology couldn't actually fulfill the concept) you could become a working model of whatever you just downloaded.

So what would you become?

That's when my Geekness went into overdrive.

I went online and wrote found the name of every Autobot and what they could transform into. I then started upgrading them.

Here's what I've done. I actually have a document that has pictures of everything but I have no idea how to put the whole thing online (it's huge!) so what I'm going to do is type it out for you and give you the pleasure of searching online for images of the vehicles I've upgraded each Autobot into.

Take a look and let me know if this is too confusing for you.

 

Name: Freeway

Original Form: Chevrolet Corvette C6 coupe

Upgraded Form: Chevrolet Corvette Z03

 

Name: Rollbar

Original Form: Jeep Wrangler

Upgraded Form: Jeep Trailhawk Concept

 

Name: Searchlight

Original Form: Ford RS200

Upgraded Form: Ford GT90 Concept

 

Name: Wideload

Original Form: Caterpillar 797B Mining Truck

Upgraded Form: Super Tipper Truck Concept

 

Name: Railspike

Original Form: 500 Series Shinkansen Nozomi bullet train

Upgraded Form: Solar Bullet Train concept

 

Name: RapidRun

Original Form: 700 Series Shinkansen Rail Star

Upgraded Form: Kowasaki Super Express Train

 

Name: Roadbuster

Original Form: M1117 Armored Security Vehicle

Upgraded Form: ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol) Military Combat Vehicle Concept

 

Name: Emirate Xaaron

Original Form: Cybertronian tank

Upgraded Form: 1936  Mercedes Benz 500k

Transformers Upgraded...part 5

Right after the first Transformers movie came out I was online reading what was suggested as being the original script of the movie. In it I read that when Bumblebee scanned a passing Chevy Camaro that scene was not in the original script. In the original Bumblebee actually hacks the GMC database and downloads the specs of the concept for the new Camaro.

This brought to mind something that I felt needed addressed.

If you were a shape-changing advanced alien robot that can alter your shape into anything you can download the specs to, why would you only change into GMC products?

Granted GMC paid for the chance to advertise their new vehicles for the movie, but let's leave rality out of this.

Now, you are an advanced alien robot that can probably download anything we can imagine and (even if our technology couldn't actually fulfill the concept) you could become a working model of whatever you just downloaded.

So what would you become?

That's when my Geekness went into overdrive.

I went online and wrote found the name of every Autobot and what they could transform into. I then started upgrading them.

Here's what I've done. I actually have a document that has pictures of everything but I have no idea how to put the whole thing online (it's huge!) so what I'm going to do is type it out for you and give you the pleasure of searching online for images of the vehicles I've upgraded each Autobot into.

Take a look and let me know if this is too confusing for you.

 

Name: Strafe

Original Form: US X-29 Swept-Wing Fighter

Upgraded Form: Fire Arrow XXL Fighter Concept

(http://www.igorstshirts.com/blog/conceptships/future_plane_concept_ship.jpg)

 

Name: Nosecone

Original Form: Drill Tank

Upgraded Form: Nuclear powered Underground Drill

 

Name: Afterburner

Original Form: Cybertronian Speedbike

Upgraded Form: Suzuki Biplane Motorcycle Concept

 

Name: Sandstorm

Original Form: Dune Buggy / Sikorsky S-61 Transport Helicopter

Upgraded Form: Mojave Runner / Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion

 

Name: Quickswitch

Original 1st Form: Dornier Alpha Jet

Original 2nd Form: Caspian Sea Monster Skimmer

Original 3rd Form: Puma

Original 4th Form: Thunderbirds Mole Drill

Original 5th Form: Tavor TAR-21 Assault Gun

Upgraded 1st Form: Bentley Jet Concept

Upgraded 2nd Form: Earthrace Speedboat

Upgraded 3rd Form: Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle aka Cougar

Upgraded 4th Form: Midori King Moguras Drill

Upgraded 5th Form: Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon

 

Name: Chase

Original Form: Ferrari Testarossa

Upgraded Form: Ferrari Concept 2008