June 2014 Monthly Entry
From July 4-6 I will be in Spokane, WA for the Knights of Mantra's Gathering 2014 weekend. It'll be my first going to a Fourth of July celebration so should be fun! I'll write about the weekend here and post some pics.
I also wish all my Daddybears and LeatherDaddies a belated Happy Fathers Day! WOOF!
The weather has been pretty good this late spring. It has mostly been sunny and not too hot though recently, it has gotten colder at times and some rain may show up. Nothing much has been happening at work as I can tell. There is a possibility that our supervisor, Raj, may have quit his job in frustration as of a couple Thursdays ago. If this is true, then this is the second supervisor to quit in under a year due to the bullshit that my managers can't seem to figure out. I happened to be around when he finally snapped after a single phone call from my manager (the son). Raj had to see me in the afternoon for a recap of his duties in my buildings as I would be doing my monthly work at the Marquis Grande the following day. As I was cleaning the Varley, Raj comes by and we chatted a bit. He says he has been busy all day running all over the place, burning tons of gas in the process. He then gets a call from our manager asking him to run over to his (the manager's) house in Vancouver to grab some light bulbs, and then drive all the way over to a condo building in Coquitlam, and replace one light bulb! After hanging up, Raj near blew up and tells me that he's basically had it and was thinking of actually quitting! He adds that it's also the low pay and he's been paying over $300 a month in gas - with no compensation from the company at all! He admits to me that he only makes $1 an hour more than me, which didn't surprise me in the least as I tell him that technically, he is making less money than those who buy monthly transit passes and are paid a little less! He says he can't stand our managers taking advantage of him and everyone else that if he wanted to, he would call the son back and tell him that he was quitting right then and now. But then he says that he would make the exception and work the next day just to be fair to me at the very least - but after Friday, that might be it. I said I understood but hoped he would reconsider. There was another call from my manager and Raj was talking to him in an irritated tone but it was in Fujian so couldn't understand it. Last week, I noticed that my manager was super busy that he barely called me and only showed up about twice. I kept thinking that it was very likely that Raj did in fact quit and my manager wasn't going to admit it so readily. I noticed in his van another worker that I don't think I met before and we weren't introduced... could this be supervisor number three? I talked to both Larry and Priscillia about this and they think it's likely Raj quit but until we know for sure, we are only speculating. We all felt his reasons were justified. Maybe I'll know by next month's entry.
David is home from his trip and life resumes to normal. He told me some details about his trip and here are some that I can remember: he was supposed to attend a Passover seder by meeting up with someone in Toronto but this person bailed out on him for whatever reason so this year; David didn't do a seder, I found that slave Agustin was really the one who paid for David's prescription medications, I forget where; but at some train station David had to wait outside all night with his luggage as they were closed and had to wait until they opened in the morning (he said he was thankful it didn't rain that night!), he did in fact get screwed out on in France by a submissive that he went to Belgium immediately instead to stay with a "son" as he didn't have the money to stay in a hotel in France, he then went back to France to see a slave visiting from Switzerland and he was generous enough to pay for the hotel room (the same slave that visited us during the 2010 Winter Olympics), David's return to Belgium and taking the flight back to Toronto with his 3-hour layover in Dublin, having sex with his visiting Irish slave in the airport's handicap washroom, and his final stay back in Hamilton with having to shell out more money to get to and from there by shuttle. I found out from Peter that slave Myke, who hosted David in Hamilton, was appalled by David's behaviour in respect to the three of us: that David had the gall to ask him (Myke) for a huge loan, that the money Peter gave David as a gift was not used on treating slaves Myke and Agustin to brunch but was used to buy Euros instead and then David lied to Peter that he treated Myke out!, and that Myke knew that I bailed David out of Europe - have done so previously too - plus that David was currently in huge debt to me. For these and other reasons, Myke wrote and mailed a letter to David that he was ceasing being his slave. I happened to see it and skim through it when it arrived so I told Peter about it on Recon. David has yet to even tell either of us of the letter and that Myke cut him off even to this day, obviously too embarrassed to admit his usual sins. But much to our surprise, David confessed to Peter of what he did with the money he was given as a gift and said he was sorry! Peter accepted the apology and left it that. But not everything's in good spirits as I overheard David and he even confirmed to me that sometime next year, he wants to do another European trip and visit the countries he missed! He says that slave Agustin will be paying for his roundtrip airfare to and from Madrid! I don't know what to feel and I just shake my head at the whole thing... David is a true hedonist.
I saw The Artist on Netflix last month. It was a good movie that pays homage to the silent-era of early filmmaking and it looked suprisingly authentic - everything from being shot in black and white, the styles, and the fact the entire movie has no sound outside of the film's score. There is an exception in one part of the movie and at the very end that they use sound. It's story of a famous silent-film actor, George Valentin, who meets a girl named Peppy Miller and gets her into becoming a Hollywood star. But when the studio George works for is ending silent-film production as sound is becoming more popular, George views it as a fad and goes on to star and finance his own silent film - which would make or break him (also at the time was the 1929 Stock Market Crash). His opening night is on the same night of a film that Peppy is starring in. Audiences flock to Peppy's while George's a flop. The rest of the movie is George being down and Peppy eventually coming to help him - as thanks for his making her a star. The performances are good and includes John Goodman playing the manager of the studio. He looks hot smoking a cigar - WOOF! George's Jack Russell Terrier dog, Jack, is lovable! If you like classic movies and would be fascinated on how a 2011-shot film does a great job giving that classic feel of a silent-era film, I highly recommend The Artist.
Last week I saw Disney's Robin Hood on Blu-Ray, which came out in 1973 (I keep thinking it was 1975 for some reason). The last I saw it was on the last DVD release, which I watched with the late-Kevin. The first times I saw it was back in the mid-80s on VHS and either we recorded it on TV or my father copied it from a rented tape. I generally like this film, especially by the third act as things heat up. Because the production had a limited budget, the animators recycled the animation from Snow White, The Aristocats, and The Jungle Book. I did notice this in a few scenes, especially the song "The Phony King of England". The song and sequence, "Love" is actually very nice. Personally, I find the "relationship" between Prince John and Sir Hiss almost mirroring David and I! The way Sir Hiss criticizes Prince John is my thought process against David: 1. I warm him not to do something, 2. David doesn't listen to me and goes and does the opposite, 3. Whatever David does gets blown up in his face, 4. I remind him that I warned him of this error, 5. David gets pissed off at me for being right and won't accept responsibility. Yep, practically to a "T". Phil Harris, who voiced Baloo in the Jungle Book, returns as Little John. I love Friar Tuck and that it was a smart of Disney to not censor his references to "The Lord" and his portrayal as a humble and giving man (or in this case, badger) who has a dislike for the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. To see Doug Walker's review of the movie, go here or below:
There is a lot Spider-Man stuff to talk about so here you go web-heads!
I watched all of the 1981 Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoons on Netflix. I never knew until recent years of there being an original Spider-Man cartoon but I always remembered Amazing Friends since I saw a few episodes that we had recorded on VHS back in the late 80's. The only episode I remember back then was an episode involving the villain, the Shocker, and it had Spider-Man's origin story ("Along Came Spidey"). It was an entertaining cartoon and my older sister loves Amazing Friends but didn't care for the original one. For whatever reason Doctor Doom, the main antagonist in The Fantastic Four, was the most featured villain that he was on about 7 episodes combined! While they managed to put in most of Spidey's villains they missed out on Rhino (makes no sense, he's one of my faves!), The Jackal, and Morbius. The portrayal of the villains is actually quite good for its time. The art and animation was an obvious improvement over the 1967 series and we even got cameos of the X-Men in their original costumes. Speaking of X-Men, Firestar and Iceman were introduced as partners for Spider-Man and while Iceman was originally part of the X-Men in the comics, Firestar's debut was actually in this cartoon! Her origin story has her being recruited by the X-Men ("A Firestar Is Born", it's the only episode to have the woofy Juggernaut as the villain) and she would be included in the comic books after this cartoon. Aunt May is as sweet as she usually is but Amazing Friends introduced a dog into the mix to make the cartoon more cute: Ms. Lion (I feel the cartoon's masculine boy-appeal being sucked out...). The one thing I didn't care for was the voice acting of Peter Parker by Dan Gilvezan. He's not a bad voice actor but he really lacks emotion and as we all know, Peter Parker/Spider-Man is all giving emotion! While there are plot holes and silly nonsense that defies logic - common in cartoons back then - it's still entertaining and has a place among good media portrayals of Marvel characters. Oh yeah, and the music is soooo 70's trendy and I love it! To see the openings go here and here or below:
Also on Netflix I watched Spider-Man 3, which I don't think I watched since the 2007 theatrical release but I could be wrong. Checking back in my blog archives of 2007, it said I liked the movie. But as time went by and I thought about it, I was convinced it was not as good as I thought it was. I loved the second movie and the first was very good for it's time but to be honest, the 3rd one was really a let down. While the Sandman was awesome (except they should have left out the whole "I do bad things for my sick daughter" bullshit), the portrayal of Eddie Brock (was is he so young and scrawny? Brock is older than Peter and works out) and Venom was a bad kick in my balls. And the Green Goblin? Meh, was expected. The major flaw of this movie was putting too much stuff into the plot which made it a mess. But what I absolutely hated in this movie: they reveal that it was the guy who becomes the Sandman that shot Uncle Ben - by accident! That's right folks, unlike the comic book and cartoon versions before it, one of Spidey's villains (and not an important one at that!) is Uncle Ben's murderer and it was an accident! No, no, no, no, NOOOOO!!! I cannot fantom what the fuck the writers were thinking in changing the origin story. It sucked out the emotion of it. Look, my favourite portrayals of the origin story are in the 1967 series ("The Origin of Spider-Man"), the Amazing Spider-Man's 400th issue, and in the first Spider-Man movie since they were the ones I knew (the mid 90's Animated Series was a quick flashback and frankly, pathetic due to the show's pacing issues). To me, they conveyed the shock and emotion of Peter Parker so well that you end up feeling sorry for the guy. He made one selfish mistake and it cost him to the point that he says (in ASM #400), "It was like I killed my uncle!" after he knocks out his uncle's killer. Spider-Man 3 comes along and says, "it was the guy who eventually became the Sandman who really shot Uncle Ben... and it was an accident so you can't blame him!" Really? I can accept in the 1989 Batman movie that they made the man who became the Joker the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents because at least, the Joker is Batman's greatest villain and he didn't do it "by accident". I don't totally agree with it but I accept it as passable. Spider-Man 3 had no fucking excuse for this travesty. They should have left the Uncle Ben subplot alone and made the Sandman a common crook. If you wanted his criminal motives to be about saving his daughter - while unnecessary, I could somewhat accept, but the Uncle Ben thing shouldn't have been resurrected and leached onto. Mary Jane Watson was her usual self... not much to say. While I liked that Gwen Stacy was added, I found it was too late to put her in and that the second movie would have made sense - making a love triangle and having her be killed by the Green Goblin in this third installment. Oh yeah, the whole "evil Peter Parker" thing was... lame, but the black Spider-Man costume and enhanced abilities from the alien symbiote were pretty cool to see. It's a shame that this ended the Sam Rami trilogy and we never got to see more villains and possibly the eventual marriage of Peter and Mary Jane in it. But in the end, it's still an entertaining movie and not terrible, it's just the weakest of the trilogy.
A few Wednesdays ago I finally got to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 3D at Cineplex in Coquitlam. There were only about 6 of us in the theatre so I picked a good time to see it after the crowds and hype had considerably died down. As some of you have noticed, the reviews have really been mixed on this movie. There is a good reason: this movie made the same major mistake as Spider-Man 3 - too much plot being crammed into a single movie and wanting so much going on at once. You'd think they learned this mistake 7 years previous but, nope. There are spoilers coming so you have been warned! This movie put in two major villains and teases a third at the very end (more on this later). The first, Electro, is pretty creative and Jamie Foxx does pretty good in this role (though, why they needed an African-American to pay the role when Electro is caucasian in the comics and other media is a strange decision) but before he becomes Electro, he's somewhat obnoxious. The second is Green Goblin, and strangely, not only did Norman Osborn not become the Green Goblin, but he dies from an illness and then Harry becomes the first goblin! Not sure if I agree with this choice... but ah well. His portrayal wasn't bad either. A good highlight of this movie is what was continued over from the first: the relationship between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Once again, it just kills the original trilogy's Peter and Mary Jane relationship by making them so much more compatible and believable. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone nail it in both their respective roles and relationship! Gwen Stacy is still the intelligent and useful character from the first film and is just fun to watch. What I found strange is that Peter is working for the Daily Bugle (in my review of the first film, I also found it strange that they didn't have Peter go to them soon after Uncle Ben was killed since he needed to support Aunt May) but you never see him at their office (he emails his photos) nor are any of the characters from the Bugle ever shown, including J. Jonah Jameson! Why not? They better rectify this by the third film! I'm sure the one thing that both surprised non-fans and was easily expected by fans is the death of Gwen Stacy in this film. I did expect this but this was confirmed because some stupid bitch on a bus ride was talking to her friend and reveals this spoiler and I overheard her! Regardless, if you have good knowledge of the Spider-Man comics, this was a no-brainer to have happened. In the comic, it happened on the George Washington Bridge but in the movie, in a clock tower. I didn't mind personally of this creative change. Anyways, Gwen's death is the same as in the comic: she falls and Spidey shoot a line of webbing to save her but the impact of the fall and the webbing snagging her causes her death. It didn't quite have the emotional punch I thought it could have for some reason. It was sad, but it didn't cause me to shed a tear. I'd be interested in knowing what you guys thought of that scene. There were subplots in the movie that were just being thrown all over the place: Peter finding out about why his parents left him and the research his father was doing, Gwen wanting to go study at Oxford (she did go to England in the comic and while Peter tries to see her, he becomes Spider-Man and foregos seeing her as Peter), Harry Osborn's inherited illness and running the Oscorp company, the stuff involving Electro and then Harry's transformation into the Green Goblin, hinting at the end of the possibility of the "Sinister Six" coming to fruition... just so much stuff going on in a single movie! Oh yes, the end... if you seen the trailers, you would have noticed that the movie includes Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich (played by Paul Giamatti), the one who becomes the Rhino, and assume he is featured in this movie as the third major villain... but he's nothing more than a cocktease! Seriously, at the beginning of the movie, he is a thug that Spidey takes down and you assume he will show up later as the Rhino and get revenge. Nope, he doesn't show up wearing his mechanical Rhino armour until the VERY END of the movie! WTF! Why did they put him in the trailer then??? While I didn't agree with making the Rhino in mechanical armour, I am hoping that this is a prelude to him getting his actual rhino suit in the next movie! Wouldn't it have been better to not put Rhino in the trailer and instead, surprise the viewer and set up the next movie? This was blasphemy to me as Rhino is one of my favourite Spider-Man villains and certainly one of the most bearish. I just didn't like him being tossed aside like that in this movie. Now after all this ranting, what good comes from this movie? I was throughly entertained by it, was colourful, had great action scenes, the use of 3D was good, and the relationship between Peter and Gwen was its selling point. During the end credits, there was a preview of a future X-Men movie that looks like it takes place during the Vietnam War. Funny, I was the only person left in the theatre to see it as everyone else left, LOL! Unlike The Dark Knight Rises in which I left the theatre disappointed, this movie made me leave with some satisfaction so it meant it just barely passed as an acceptable sequel. On the way home, I was thinking about what the third movie is going to be like. Will Mary Jane Watson and/or Felicia Hardy be introduced as new love interests? Will Peter be in Empire State University? Are we finally going to see the Daily Bugle? Is Rhino going to be in his actual suit? I guess we'll find out in a couple of years. To see the Bum Review go here or below:
LOL! "I'm in the movie!"
I just started The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword so I'm very early and it's likely I won't be finished it until next month. I'm making great progress in Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and the main game is almost done but the extra and more difficult dungeons will likely slow me down given that I don't know what I'm getting into. Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO I'll start playing at my folks sometime. As for finishing off Season 1 of Star Trek: DS9, I've made no progress. I need to really step it up!
Last monthly entry, I forgot to mention that it has been a year since I began my Bible reading project. So I have completed over half of the Old Testament, from the beginning of Genesis to around Isaiah in a year. By now, it may be possible that I'll be done the Old Testament by fall and start the New Testament to finish it off. I should add that I have been starting to watch last year's popular The Bible miniseries on Netflix. Having watched a few episodes... I'm disappointed. Next month, I'll talk about it but let's say, it does not do the Bible justice when so much content is axed and others changed from the source material.
I'm almost done the prophet Jeremiah, which is the second major prophet to warn Israel and Judah about their impending destruction at the hand of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah writes about the New Covenant and the hope that God would bring when He delivers them after the captivity. King Zedekiah who did not heed his warning throws Jeremiah into prison and then into a cistern. Nevertheless, Jeremiah warned that the King would fall into the hands of the Nebuchadnezzar. As many prophets had announced in the past, the Empire of Babylon indeed laid siege to Jerusalem and the land of Judah. This completes the exile of both kingdoms. King Zedekiah was captured and his son murdered in his presence, he was blinded, bound and dragged off to Babylon in captivity. At the end of the book, God promises to rescue His nation from captivity.
Last Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Theatrical), Disney's Robin Hood (Blu-Ray)
Last Book: KJV Holy Bible - Isaiah
Last Game: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)
Current Book: KJV Holy Bible - Jeremiah
Current Games: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) & Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition (PSP) & Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO (Xbox)
I also wish all my Daddybears and LeatherDaddies a belated Happy Fathers Day! WOOF!
The weather has been pretty good this late spring. It has mostly been sunny and not too hot though recently, it has gotten colder at times and some rain may show up. Nothing much has been happening at work as I can tell. There is a possibility that our supervisor, Raj, may have quit his job in frustration as of a couple Thursdays ago. If this is true, then this is the second supervisor to quit in under a year due to the bullshit that my managers can't seem to figure out. I happened to be around when he finally snapped after a single phone call from my manager (the son). Raj had to see me in the afternoon for a recap of his duties in my buildings as I would be doing my monthly work at the Marquis Grande the following day. As I was cleaning the Varley, Raj comes by and we chatted a bit. He says he has been busy all day running all over the place, burning tons of gas in the process. He then gets a call from our manager asking him to run over to his (the manager's) house in Vancouver to grab some light bulbs, and then drive all the way over to a condo building in Coquitlam, and replace one light bulb! After hanging up, Raj near blew up and tells me that he's basically had it and was thinking of actually quitting! He adds that it's also the low pay and he's been paying over $300 a month in gas - with no compensation from the company at all! He admits to me that he only makes $1 an hour more than me, which didn't surprise me in the least as I tell him that technically, he is making less money than those who buy monthly transit passes and are paid a little less! He says he can't stand our managers taking advantage of him and everyone else that if he wanted to, he would call the son back and tell him that he was quitting right then and now. But then he says that he would make the exception and work the next day just to be fair to me at the very least - but after Friday, that might be it. I said I understood but hoped he would reconsider. There was another call from my manager and Raj was talking to him in an irritated tone but it was in Fujian so couldn't understand it. Last week, I noticed that my manager was super busy that he barely called me and only showed up about twice. I kept thinking that it was very likely that Raj did in fact quit and my manager wasn't going to admit it so readily. I noticed in his van another worker that I don't think I met before and we weren't introduced... could this be supervisor number three? I talked to both Larry and Priscillia about this and they think it's likely Raj quit but until we know for sure, we are only speculating. We all felt his reasons were justified. Maybe I'll know by next month's entry.
David is home from his trip and life resumes to normal. He told me some details about his trip and here are some that I can remember: he was supposed to attend a Passover seder by meeting up with someone in Toronto but this person bailed out on him for whatever reason so this year; David didn't do a seder, I found that slave Agustin was really the one who paid for David's prescription medications, I forget where; but at some train station David had to wait outside all night with his luggage as they were closed and had to wait until they opened in the morning (he said he was thankful it didn't rain that night!), he did in fact get screwed out on in France by a submissive that he went to Belgium immediately instead to stay with a "son" as he didn't have the money to stay in a hotel in France, he then went back to France to see a slave visiting from Switzerland and he was generous enough to pay for the hotel room (the same slave that visited us during the 2010 Winter Olympics), David's return to Belgium and taking the flight back to Toronto with his 3-hour layover in Dublin, having sex with his visiting Irish slave in the airport's handicap washroom, and his final stay back in Hamilton with having to shell out more money to get to and from there by shuttle. I found out from Peter that slave Myke, who hosted David in Hamilton, was appalled by David's behaviour in respect to the three of us: that David had the gall to ask him (Myke) for a huge loan, that the money Peter gave David as a gift was not used on treating slaves Myke and Agustin to brunch but was used to buy Euros instead and then David lied to Peter that he treated Myke out!, and that Myke knew that I bailed David out of Europe - have done so previously too - plus that David was currently in huge debt to me. For these and other reasons, Myke wrote and mailed a letter to David that he was ceasing being his slave. I happened to see it and skim through it when it arrived so I told Peter about it on Recon. David has yet to even tell either of us of the letter and that Myke cut him off even to this day, obviously too embarrassed to admit his usual sins. But much to our surprise, David confessed to Peter of what he did with the money he was given as a gift and said he was sorry! Peter accepted the apology and left it that. But not everything's in good spirits as I overheard David and he even confirmed to me that sometime next year, he wants to do another European trip and visit the countries he missed! He says that slave Agustin will be paying for his roundtrip airfare to and from Madrid! I don't know what to feel and I just shake my head at the whole thing... David is a true hedonist.
I saw The Artist on Netflix last month. It was a good movie that pays homage to the silent-era of early filmmaking and it looked suprisingly authentic - everything from being shot in black and white, the styles, and the fact the entire movie has no sound outside of the film's score. There is an exception in one part of the movie and at the very end that they use sound. It's story of a famous silent-film actor, George Valentin, who meets a girl named Peppy Miller and gets her into becoming a Hollywood star. But when the studio George works for is ending silent-film production as sound is becoming more popular, George views it as a fad and goes on to star and finance his own silent film - which would make or break him (also at the time was the 1929 Stock Market Crash). His opening night is on the same night of a film that Peppy is starring in. Audiences flock to Peppy's while George's a flop. The rest of the movie is George being down and Peppy eventually coming to help him - as thanks for his making her a star. The performances are good and includes John Goodman playing the manager of the studio. He looks hot smoking a cigar - WOOF! George's Jack Russell Terrier dog, Jack, is lovable! If you like classic movies and would be fascinated on how a 2011-shot film does a great job giving that classic feel of a silent-era film, I highly recommend The Artist.
Last week I saw Disney's Robin Hood on Blu-Ray, which came out in 1973 (I keep thinking it was 1975 for some reason). The last I saw it was on the last DVD release, which I watched with the late-Kevin. The first times I saw it was back in the mid-80s on VHS and either we recorded it on TV or my father copied it from a rented tape. I generally like this film, especially by the third act as things heat up. Because the production had a limited budget, the animators recycled the animation from Snow White, The Aristocats, and The Jungle Book. I did notice this in a few scenes, especially the song "The Phony King of England". The song and sequence, "Love" is actually very nice. Personally, I find the "relationship" between Prince John and Sir Hiss almost mirroring David and I! The way Sir Hiss criticizes Prince John is my thought process against David: 1. I warm him not to do something, 2. David doesn't listen to me and goes and does the opposite, 3. Whatever David does gets blown up in his face, 4. I remind him that I warned him of this error, 5. David gets pissed off at me for being right and won't accept responsibility. Yep, practically to a "T". Phil Harris, who voiced Baloo in the Jungle Book, returns as Little John. I love Friar Tuck and that it was a smart of Disney to not censor his references to "The Lord" and his portrayal as a humble and giving man (or in this case, badger) who has a dislike for the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. To see Doug Walker's review of the movie, go here or below:
Click to viewThere is a lot Spider-Man stuff to talk about so here you go web-heads!
I watched all of the 1981 Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoons on Netflix. I never knew until recent years of there being an original Spider-Man cartoon but I always remembered Amazing Friends since I saw a few episodes that we had recorded on VHS back in the late 80's. The only episode I remember back then was an episode involving the villain, the Shocker, and it had Spider-Man's origin story ("Along Came Spidey"). It was an entertaining cartoon and my older sister loves Amazing Friends but didn't care for the original one. For whatever reason Doctor Doom, the main antagonist in The Fantastic Four, was the most featured villain that he was on about 7 episodes combined! While they managed to put in most of Spidey's villains they missed out on Rhino (makes no sense, he's one of my faves!), The Jackal, and Morbius. The portrayal of the villains is actually quite good for its time. The art and animation was an obvious improvement over the 1967 series and we even got cameos of the X-Men in their original costumes. Speaking of X-Men, Firestar and Iceman were introduced as partners for Spider-Man and while Iceman was originally part of the X-Men in the comics, Firestar's debut was actually in this cartoon! Her origin story has her being recruited by the X-Men ("A Firestar Is Born", it's the only episode to have the woofy Juggernaut as the villain) and she would be included in the comic books after this cartoon. Aunt May is as sweet as she usually is but Amazing Friends introduced a dog into the mix to make the cartoon more cute: Ms. Lion (I feel the cartoon's masculine boy-appeal being sucked out...). The one thing I didn't care for was the voice acting of Peter Parker by Dan Gilvezan. He's not a bad voice actor but he really lacks emotion and as we all know, Peter Parker/Spider-Man is all giving emotion! While there are plot holes and silly nonsense that defies logic - common in cartoons back then - it's still entertaining and has a place among good media portrayals of Marvel characters. Oh yeah, and the music is soooo 70's trendy and I love it! To see the openings go here and here or below:
Also on Netflix I watched Spider-Man 3, which I don't think I watched since the 2007 theatrical release but I could be wrong. Checking back in my blog archives of 2007, it said I liked the movie. But as time went by and I thought about it, I was convinced it was not as good as I thought it was. I loved the second movie and the first was very good for it's time but to be honest, the 3rd one was really a let down. While the Sandman was awesome (except they should have left out the whole "I do bad things for my sick daughter" bullshit), the portrayal of Eddie Brock (was is he so young and scrawny? Brock is older than Peter and works out) and Venom was a bad kick in my balls. And the Green Goblin? Meh, was expected. The major flaw of this movie was putting too much stuff into the plot which made it a mess. But what I absolutely hated in this movie: they reveal that it was the guy who becomes the Sandman that shot Uncle Ben - by accident! That's right folks, unlike the comic book and cartoon versions before it, one of Spidey's villains (and not an important one at that!) is Uncle Ben's murderer and it was an accident! No, no, no, no, NOOOOO!!! I cannot fantom what the fuck the writers were thinking in changing the origin story. It sucked out the emotion of it. Look, my favourite portrayals of the origin story are in the 1967 series ("The Origin of Spider-Man"), the Amazing Spider-Man's 400th issue, and in the first Spider-Man movie since they were the ones I knew (the mid 90's Animated Series was a quick flashback and frankly, pathetic due to the show's pacing issues). To me, they conveyed the shock and emotion of Peter Parker so well that you end up feeling sorry for the guy. He made one selfish mistake and it cost him to the point that he says (in ASM #400), "It was like I killed my uncle!" after he knocks out his uncle's killer. Spider-Man 3 comes along and says, "it was the guy who eventually became the Sandman who really shot Uncle Ben... and it was an accident so you can't blame him!" Really? I can accept in the 1989 Batman movie that they made the man who became the Joker the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents because at least, the Joker is Batman's greatest villain and he didn't do it "by accident". I don't totally agree with it but I accept it as passable. Spider-Man 3 had no fucking excuse for this travesty. They should have left the Uncle Ben subplot alone and made the Sandman a common crook. If you wanted his criminal motives to be about saving his daughter - while unnecessary, I could somewhat accept, but the Uncle Ben thing shouldn't have been resurrected and leached onto. Mary Jane Watson was her usual self... not much to say. While I liked that Gwen Stacy was added, I found it was too late to put her in and that the second movie would have made sense - making a love triangle and having her be killed by the Green Goblin in this third installment. Oh yeah, the whole "evil Peter Parker" thing was... lame, but the black Spider-Man costume and enhanced abilities from the alien symbiote were pretty cool to see. It's a shame that this ended the Sam Rami trilogy and we never got to see more villains and possibly the eventual marriage of Peter and Mary Jane in it. But in the end, it's still an entertaining movie and not terrible, it's just the weakest of the trilogy.
A few Wednesdays ago I finally got to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 3D at Cineplex in Coquitlam. There were only about 6 of us in the theatre so I picked a good time to see it after the crowds and hype had considerably died down. As some of you have noticed, the reviews have really been mixed on this movie. There is a good reason: this movie made the same major mistake as Spider-Man 3 - too much plot being crammed into a single movie and wanting so much going on at once. You'd think they learned this mistake 7 years previous but, nope. There are spoilers coming so you have been warned! This movie put in two major villains and teases a third at the very end (more on this later). The first, Electro, is pretty creative and Jamie Foxx does pretty good in this role (though, why they needed an African-American to pay the role when Electro is caucasian in the comics and other media is a strange decision) but before he becomes Electro, he's somewhat obnoxious. The second is Green Goblin, and strangely, not only did Norman Osborn not become the Green Goblin, but he dies from an illness and then Harry becomes the first goblin! Not sure if I agree with this choice... but ah well. His portrayal wasn't bad either. A good highlight of this movie is what was continued over from the first: the relationship between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Once again, it just kills the original trilogy's Peter and Mary Jane relationship by making them so much more compatible and believable. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone nail it in both their respective roles and relationship! Gwen Stacy is still the intelligent and useful character from the first film and is just fun to watch. What I found strange is that Peter is working for the Daily Bugle (in my review of the first film, I also found it strange that they didn't have Peter go to them soon after Uncle Ben was killed since he needed to support Aunt May) but you never see him at their office (he emails his photos) nor are any of the characters from the Bugle ever shown, including J. Jonah Jameson! Why not? They better rectify this by the third film! I'm sure the one thing that both surprised non-fans and was easily expected by fans is the death of Gwen Stacy in this film. I did expect this but this was confirmed because some stupid bitch on a bus ride was talking to her friend and reveals this spoiler and I overheard her! Regardless, if you have good knowledge of the Spider-Man comics, this was a no-brainer to have happened. In the comic, it happened on the George Washington Bridge but in the movie, in a clock tower. I didn't mind personally of this creative change. Anyways, Gwen's death is the same as in the comic: she falls and Spidey shoot a line of webbing to save her but the impact of the fall and the webbing snagging her causes her death. It didn't quite have the emotional punch I thought it could have for some reason. It was sad, but it didn't cause me to shed a tear. I'd be interested in knowing what you guys thought of that scene. There were subplots in the movie that were just being thrown all over the place: Peter finding out about why his parents left him and the research his father was doing, Gwen wanting to go study at Oxford (she did go to England in the comic and while Peter tries to see her, he becomes Spider-Man and foregos seeing her as Peter), Harry Osborn's inherited illness and running the Oscorp company, the stuff involving Electro and then Harry's transformation into the Green Goblin, hinting at the end of the possibility of the "Sinister Six" coming to fruition... just so much stuff going on in a single movie! Oh yes, the end... if you seen the trailers, you would have noticed that the movie includes Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich (played by Paul Giamatti), the one who becomes the Rhino, and assume he is featured in this movie as the third major villain... but he's nothing more than a cocktease! Seriously, at the beginning of the movie, he is a thug that Spidey takes down and you assume he will show up later as the Rhino and get revenge. Nope, he doesn't show up wearing his mechanical Rhino armour until the VERY END of the movie! WTF! Why did they put him in the trailer then??? While I didn't agree with making the Rhino in mechanical armour, I am hoping that this is a prelude to him getting his actual rhino suit in the next movie! Wouldn't it have been better to not put Rhino in the trailer and instead, surprise the viewer and set up the next movie? This was blasphemy to me as Rhino is one of my favourite Spider-Man villains and certainly one of the most bearish. I just didn't like him being tossed aside like that in this movie. Now after all this ranting, what good comes from this movie? I was throughly entertained by it, was colourful, had great action scenes, the use of 3D was good, and the relationship between Peter and Gwen was its selling point. During the end credits, there was a preview of a future X-Men movie that looks like it takes place during the Vietnam War. Funny, I was the only person left in the theatre to see it as everyone else left, LOL! Unlike The Dark Knight Rises in which I left the theatre disappointed, this movie made me leave with some satisfaction so it meant it just barely passed as an acceptable sequel. On the way home, I was thinking about what the third movie is going to be like. Will Mary Jane Watson and/or Felicia Hardy be introduced as new love interests? Will Peter be in Empire State University? Are we finally going to see the Daily Bugle? Is Rhino going to be in his actual suit? I guess we'll find out in a couple of years. To see the Bum Review go here or below:
LOL! "I'm in the movie!"
I just started The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword so I'm very early and it's likely I won't be finished it until next month. I'm making great progress in Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and the main game is almost done but the extra and more difficult dungeons will likely slow me down given that I don't know what I'm getting into. Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO I'll start playing at my folks sometime. As for finishing off Season 1 of Star Trek: DS9, I've made no progress. I need to really step it up!
Last monthly entry, I forgot to mention that it has been a year since I began my Bible reading project. So I have completed over half of the Old Testament, from the beginning of Genesis to around Isaiah in a year. By now, it may be possible that I'll be done the Old Testament by fall and start the New Testament to finish it off. I should add that I have been starting to watch last year's popular The Bible miniseries on Netflix. Having watched a few episodes... I'm disappointed. Next month, I'll talk about it but let's say, it does not do the Bible justice when so much content is axed and others changed from the source material.
I'm almost done the prophet Jeremiah, which is the second major prophet to warn Israel and Judah about their impending destruction at the hand of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah writes about the New Covenant and the hope that God would bring when He delivers them after the captivity. King Zedekiah who did not heed his warning throws Jeremiah into prison and then into a cistern. Nevertheless, Jeremiah warned that the King would fall into the hands of the Nebuchadnezzar. As many prophets had announced in the past, the Empire of Babylon indeed laid siege to Jerusalem and the land of Judah. This completes the exile of both kingdoms. King Zedekiah was captured and his son murdered in his presence, he was blinded, bound and dragged off to Babylon in captivity. At the end of the book, God promises to rescue His nation from captivity.
Last Movie: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Theatrical), Disney's Robin Hood (Blu-Ray)
Last Book: KJV Holy Bible - Isaiah
Last Game: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)
Current Book: KJV Holy Bible - Jeremiah
Current Games: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) & Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition (PSP) & Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO (Xbox)