A fine night spent ipsio'ing a few custodes.
Yesterday was my first day off since last Sunday and it was wonderful. I spent most of the day playing WoW and got my character a decent way into level 79. Only one more level to go! Had a great deal of fun even in spite of falling in with the worst Halls of Lightning group ever.
My character, a Death Knight, is specc'd to tank, but the level 80 Death Knight in the group felt that with his higher hit points, he should tank. Understandable. Unfortunately, he had just acquired the coveted Titansteel Destroyer and was determined to use it despite the fact he had NOT LEVELLED HIS 2-HANDED MACE SKILL AT ALL. So we've got all the monsters swarming onto me because our tank's swings are missing worse than an Imperial Stormtrooper swinging at a pinata, and one stressed out healer who can't keep up with us both taking hits - when she's not getting stomped flat by the monsters who don't glomp onto me. And this was all before the first boss. The first boss is this giant viking accompanied by two Dwarves who periodically juices up on lightning and becomes undefeatable. The trick is simple: attack him when his lightning is turned off and he's weaker and kill his two Dwarves first so he doesn't have backup during the fight. Well, between the tank facepulling him twice with the lightning and no one besides me figuring out how to attack the Dwarves we were pretty much destined to fail. I call runs like that a Diarhea Run. You know, on account of all the wipes.
Late in the afternoon my wife and I decided on late brunch/early dinner at IHOP. Despite a horrific misadventure involving onion it was awesome and the waitress was the best I've ever had at an IHOP. While I've never had a waitress quite as scary as the one at the IHOP I ate at with batchix and her husband in Illinois, who had "love" and "hate" tattooed across her knuckles, I've had many who were more than a little "off" in their own way. After the tasty dinner we finally got to see Watchmen. All I can say is WOW. It was worth the wait and worth every minute of it's two hour-forty five minute run time. When they release the rumored four hour version on DVD I am *so* there.
You know what? I liked 300, I don't care what anyone says. And I give Zack Snyder kudos for Watchmen because he was not afraid to go ahead and create what is, essentially, the anti-300: a world where larger-than life tough guys full of moral absolutes are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. It's a daring movie. Given that it contains a cast of unknowns and a severe deviation from a "Hollywood" ending it's amazing it ever got made at all.
Out of all the things that people point to as amazing in this film, I'm surprised that no one mentions the absolutely brilliant homage to Apocalypse Now. It was a set-piece moment in a movie full of them, and funny in a way that makes you feel morally terrible for laughing, yet you can't stop doing it anyway.
I've heard the line "I actually did it XX minutes ago!" used in pop culture before, but I can't remember where. I do remember thinking it was brilliant, alas whoever it was was apparently just giving a nod to Watchmen.
It's been said that the movie is slow in places, but I didn't think so. Snyder and crew knew what they were doing with the pacing. The only places that were arguably slow to me were the Silk Spectre/Dr. Manhattan scenes, especially the one on Mars. But of course, that one leads to the big pay-off that makes you appreciate the deliberate structure and pacing.
I doubt any of the actors from Watchmen will see themselves catapulted to A-lister status on account of it, but I'd love to see them get more acclaim and prominent roles, particularly the folks playing Rorshach, Comedian, and Silk Spectre II. They were perfectly cast.
I can't think of a good way to wrap up this entry except that now it's back to work as usual.
My character, a Death Knight, is specc'd to tank, but the level 80 Death Knight in the group felt that with his higher hit points, he should tank. Understandable. Unfortunately, he had just acquired the coveted Titansteel Destroyer and was determined to use it despite the fact he had NOT LEVELLED HIS 2-HANDED MACE SKILL AT ALL. So we've got all the monsters swarming onto me because our tank's swings are missing worse than an Imperial Stormtrooper swinging at a pinata, and one stressed out healer who can't keep up with us both taking hits - when she's not getting stomped flat by the monsters who don't glomp onto me. And this was all before the first boss. The first boss is this giant viking accompanied by two Dwarves who periodically juices up on lightning and becomes undefeatable. The trick is simple: attack him when his lightning is turned off and he's weaker and kill his two Dwarves first so he doesn't have backup during the fight. Well, between the tank facepulling him twice with the lightning and no one besides me figuring out how to attack the Dwarves we were pretty much destined to fail. I call runs like that a Diarhea Run. You know, on account of all the wipes.
Late in the afternoon my wife and I decided on late brunch/early dinner at IHOP. Despite a horrific misadventure involving onion it was awesome and the waitress was the best I've ever had at an IHOP. While I've never had a waitress quite as scary as the one at the IHOP I ate at with batchix and her husband in Illinois, who had "love" and "hate" tattooed across her knuckles, I've had many who were more than a little "off" in their own way. After the tasty dinner we finally got to see Watchmen. All I can say is WOW. It was worth the wait and worth every minute of it's two hour-forty five minute run time. When they release the rumored four hour version on DVD I am *so* there.
You know what? I liked 300, I don't care what anyone says. And I give Zack Snyder kudos for Watchmen because he was not afraid to go ahead and create what is, essentially, the anti-300: a world where larger-than life tough guys full of moral absolutes are part of the problem rather than part of the solution. It's a daring movie. Given that it contains a cast of unknowns and a severe deviation from a "Hollywood" ending it's amazing it ever got made at all.
Out of all the things that people point to as amazing in this film, I'm surprised that no one mentions the absolutely brilliant homage to Apocalypse Now. It was a set-piece moment in a movie full of them, and funny in a way that makes you feel morally terrible for laughing, yet you can't stop doing it anyway.
I've heard the line "I actually did it XX minutes ago!" used in pop culture before, but I can't remember where. I do remember thinking it was brilliant, alas whoever it was was apparently just giving a nod to Watchmen.
It's been said that the movie is slow in places, but I didn't think so. Snyder and crew knew what they were doing with the pacing. The only places that were arguably slow to me were the Silk Spectre/Dr. Manhattan scenes, especially the one on Mars. But of course, that one leads to the big pay-off that makes you appreciate the deliberate structure and pacing.
I doubt any of the actors from Watchmen will see themselves catapulted to A-lister status on account of it, but I'd love to see them get more acclaim and prominent roles, particularly the folks playing Rorshach, Comedian, and Silk Spectre II. They were perfectly cast.
I can't think of a good way to wrap up this entry except that now it's back to work as usual.