Tag Archives: Review

I love my new Razr Maxx HD

Posted by on November 27, 2012 No comments

You know what else I love? Living in the future. Right now I am about 30,000 feet above the US hurling through the air in defiance of whatever laws of religion/science you can imagine and doing it sitting comfortably while typing on my touch screen computer. A few more thousand feet up and we are talking Star Trek. But all that aside, I wanted
to do a post about the new phone I picked up and have been delayed due to more work
travels. On the plus side, this has given me the chance to really break in my phone.

A few years ago the 4G market for phones started to take off and I got excited about the
prospect of high speed mobile devices. I got myself the Verizon Thunderbolt and really
liked it. That is, for a few months. The biggest complaint about the TB was the battery
life and it lived up to that. Something about the combination of components just drained
the battery to the point that the power user (that would be me) could only get about 4-
5 hours out of it. I know laptops that have better battery life!! Add on to that the blatant
lack of support after only a few months. The TB stopped seeing any of the newer IS
updates and even the MOD community kind of gave up on it.

Soldiering through, I made it almost two years before I just couldn’t stand it any more. The rag tag ROMs I was able to find weren’t stable, I was getting lots of reboots, and was extremely jealous of my wife’s new Razr Maxx by Motorola. She is not a power user and had managed to go for about 3 days without charging at one point. That and it was a world phone. With my work travels and our potential vacation travels (like that trip
to London) I was going to need something better.

With my ear to the Ethernet I heard rumblings of a new Razr Maxx, the HD version. It was pricey, but the screen was amazing, it had NFC (Near Field Communication), and came standard with the ICS OS version. Best of all, one of my co-workers bought one first so I got to get some hands on with it. (Thou shalt not covet thy co-workers Cell Phone). Once we learned he was able to root it with ease, (OWN IT!) I made the decision to get one.

I am two months in now and I love this thing! It’s on par with size of the iPhone 5 (a
little wider and a tad thicker, but barely). The stock home screen was easy and quick
to adjust to so no need to add a new home launcher. I did keep some of my more
favorite apps, like the Magic Screen Unlocker, for a separate lock screen, and the Full
Screen Caller ID. Which is, of course, one of the reasons I love Android, if I don’t like a
functionality, there really is an app to switch it.

With the travel I have been doing, I have been on my phone a lot. Emails, Tweety pages and Facey spaces, etc. It’s almost weird to look down and see that I am at 40% battery life and not panic thinking I only have about 5 minutes left. Due to the ease of use, lately I have found myself using the phone instead of my iPad to check online. (Crazy, I know!).

I am sure that something will come out that is newer and fast and better than my Razr Maxx HD, but I really have a hard time believing that it won’t last me a good 2-3 years.

Now if you will excuse me, I told myself that if I got through this blog post I would read some more of the new Cold Days by Jim Butcher, while I stare out at the fluffy clouds.

Visiting Boston in the 1770’s

Posted by on November 8, 2012 No comments

You may have guessed by now that I am a huge Assassin’s creed fan.  So needless to say the new Assassin’s Creed III was on my “OMG I HAVE TO OWN THIS” list.  After a little prodding from a friend (ok, it didn’t take much prodding) I ordered the limited edition of the game.  The perks were just too much to pass up!

  • Along with a copy of the game, Assassins Creed III Limited Edition contains the essential items for gamers to ignite the American Revolution:
  • A stunning 9.44-Inch Assassin statue featuring Connor poised to strike with tomahawk and hidden blade
  • An embroidered 28-Inch x 48-Inch Assassins Creed-inspired colonial flag
  • A 3-Inch x 3.25-Inch sturdy metal belt buckle to proudly proclaim your allegiance to the Assassins
  • George Washington’s Notebook, a unique look into Washington’s life that also includes Assassins Creed III concept art

The flag is now hanging on the wall at my desk at work and the statue is right by the TV.  Of course, there was a small delay in getting this to me.  Some sort of storm or something.  UPS apparently has a hard time driving 2 hours when it’s a week after a huge storm.  (I don’t want to rant too much, but UPS sucks sometimes.) Needless to say, I was without the game for a week after release.  To alleviate my woes, I signed up for RedBox and rented the game to get me through the weekend.

All that aside, the game is beautiful.  It’s everything you could want from a colonial AC game.  I love touring around Boston and seeing sights that I have seen in modern day.  The story is great and really has me questioning the motives of the last few games (In a good way).  Sadly there are still quite a few bugs in the game.  Nothing gamebreaking but a few things here and there that really take me out of the experience and potentially have me cussing up a storm.  The usual “Stupid Ezio” moments of jumping to the wrong place or to my death are replaced with “Stupid Connor”.

Most of all I just love the sight seeing!

So if you were wondering where I was, Ill be in Boston, circa 1770’s, for a few more Days/Weeks.

Working through the Trilogy (again)

Posted by on March 26, 2012 No comments

Lately I have been suffering a little PTMED (Post Traumatic Mass Effect Depression, it’s a thing).  I tried to go play some Old Republic, but found myself too distracted with all of the huge range of emotions I experienced with my playthrough of ME3.  (Note, still liked the ending).  As I have mentioned before, I never did a second playthrough, only the single story, and single save.  The quick recap about this meant that I was able to experience the whole story in a very unique way.  It didn’t get convoluted with alternate choices or multiple stories.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I wanted to do).  I have now experienced the whole story, and I loved it.

So, what do you do with a story you just finished and loved?  You experience it again!  I made the decision to run through the whole story again, starting at Mass Effect 1, and working through the whole trilogy.  I experienced a small snag in this though.  My ME1 disk went missing!  I had pre-ordered and bought the collectors tin for ME1 and had the tin, and the bonus discs…..but no game disk!  I checked with Gamestop and they wanted $30 for a pre-owned copy (WTF!!!).  Amazon had new Platinum editions for $19 (UPDATE, it’s $16 now!!!) with prime shipping so that’s how I went.  It arrived on Friday.

To accompany this epic playthrough I also splurged and purchased the N7 branded G155 Personal Gaming Environment.  I have a number of trips coming up that may end up with me in a place that might get boring. (assuming I don’t get out and take pictures.) So I picked up this case so I could take a 360 with me.  I will probably have a post about the case after I get it wit photos and such.

So, I am now 10 hours into Mass Effect 1 and the experience is amazing.  First off, it’s VERY difficult to transition from ME3 controls down to ME1, you can tell they improved on quite a bit.  Outside of that, though, it’s been outstanding.  It feels like one of those movies where I have been transported back in time and given the opportunity to make new choices, knowing what I know now!  My favorite moment so far was meeting Wrex for the first time (again) with the Dialogue

Wrex: Do I know you human?

Me: * Not yet
* You will
* Shut Up

For those that are curious, I am playing through as BroShep.  My first was with FemShep, and my Romance options were ME1: Liara (Duh), ME2: Garrus (Comedy Option), and ME3: Traynor (Stress Relief).  I would be happy to explain these if you ask, but I think I know how I will steer things this time around.  I will certainly keep you updated on the progress both here and on Twitter.

The New Old Republic from a long time ago is now!

Posted by on January 11, 2012 No comments
The game that nearly all Star Wars fans have been waiting for since Star Wars Galaxies rolled out it’s new combat experience.  Bioware has filly come out with an MMO that changes how we really play MMO’s.

I have played quite a few MMO’s in my life.  I think my first dose was back with SWG came out, and that’s what it took to make me jump, Star Wars.  Since then there has been Everquest, FFXI, LOTRO, and the ever popular WoW.  One thing that was a constant was that, while the gameplay was fun, I never really got into the story.  That’s not to say that I didn’t like the story much, but it never grabbed me.  That is until The Old Republic.

In single player games, there is a lot of emphasis put on the story.  You are telling the story from the players point of view.  These are the games that grab you and make you care about your character and drive you through the game.  In most MMO’s the story is told through the quest givers and usually there is a lot of reading.  Most of this reading breaks down to “Them thar cyotes are killin mah chickens! Go kill 10 of them and bring me their pelts!” Because, surely the other “cyotes” will take the hint.  With TOR, the quest giver tells you, through actual conversation, what he needs, and you steer the conversation with your reactions.  Fully voiced characters help with that.  I can see that my character is making the decision to kill 10 “cyotes” and I can hear the impact that it has on the NPC.  It’s not just a paragraph of text that I probably wouldn’t be reading anyways.  Span that across 50 Levels….that’s a big story.

So now we have taken the Single player aspect of story telling ad brought it to a MMO.  But what about the M in MMO? (yeah I know there are two, we are talking about the Multiplayer one.)  That’s what makes the story telling part that much more interesting.  Lets throw a second player in the conversation now.  Farmer Frank is worried about his chickens, Jedi Joe is very interested in Farmer Franks plight, but Smuggler Steve just wants to get paid.  This changes the conversation!  For each conversation choice, the players roll to see who gets to answer.  Depending on the response, Farmer Frank could reply with something different.  The outcome of the quest could be, less money, or no money, or lots of money!

I found that I was really interested in my story quests, so much so that I started bypassing some of the side quests that everyone can get just to progress my story.  The downside to this being that my story got too hard for the level I was at.  Side quests are there to help build you up more.  I have become more attached and actually care about my characters story line more so than any other MMO.  Add into this the actual moral choices that Bioware is known for throwing into the mix, and now we have different story trees that make even the same player class re-playable!  I wasn’t so sure on this until I watched a friend, who was the same class, in his story quest and the outcome of the conversation was vastly different because of his choices.  (it’s no wonder this game took so long to come out!)

All of this is not even getting into actual game mechanics and game play.  I might try and cover that in a separate post since I don’t want to make this terribly long.  A quick side note about interesting game mechanics.  Everyone knows that you can press a key combo to hide your UI and then press “Print Screen” to take a screen shot.  Bioware took this to the next level by giving Collectors Edition buyers a “Holocamera” in game.  When used, it creates a screen shot from the players POV.  Not too different from the key combo right?  Nope, but the in game character will actually pull out a camera and take a picture.  This made my trip to Tatooine a bit more touristy!  Enjoy the pics and expect more from a galaxy far far away soon!

The one about my new Nikon Camera

Posted by on November 29, 2010 No comments

I really enjoy photography. Back when I was in high school I was the news paper photographer and worked in the dark room there developing all my own photos. I loved it. To this day I can still identify the smell of stop wash. When I moved up to the bay area and switched schools I made the attempt to continue my path but sadly was blocked from this due to how things were handled at the new school. Because of this I ended up switching gears and really got into Drama. A part of me really yearned to get back into photography but time and money constraints have never been with me. Over the years I have picked up various point and shoot cameras, both film based and digital. I kind of made a point to always have some sort of camera on me, just in case a shot needed taking. And of course any time I would process my photos, or even look at other photos from friends, I would dream of the time I could afford to pick up a DSLR and get back into it.

Recently, and you may know, I have switched jobs and had an opportunity to take a step forward on this pipe dream. I decided that I would start combing the pawn shops and craigslists to see if I could find a good, inexpensive, camera. Well, one thing I learned really quick is that there are no good cheap DSLR cameras. The other month, fate made the decision for me and I found a Nikon D3000 at a local pawn shop. Infer a brief haggling exchange, I managed to pick it up for a very decent price. Thus it was decided that I would be a Nikon guy. I soon learned that the D3000 was a fairly good starter camera, which worked great for me since I was re-learning all over again.

My D3000 didn’t come with the standard stock zoom lens. Instead I got really lucky and it was paired with a 35mm 1.8 Nikkor lens. (roughly a $200 bonus). I picked up a starter book and set about framing my head with F-stops and shutter speeds. I was amazed at how fast I was able to fall back into the routine and stop using the auto settings. I pretty much only shoot in manual mode and make sure that I shoot a few shots of each subject with varying settings. I have been really impressed with the d3000 as far as guiding me through the learning process. It shoots great shots for a starter camera and was easy to learn.

Now, that said, the D3000 also has quite a few limitations. For a modern day DSLR, the 10mp is kind of low. Also, while most of the settings are great for the beginner, it’s lacking some of the more advanced options. Some simple video recording would have been nice too. The nice thing is that there is an opportunity to grow eventually when I need up upgrade, I can just look into a new body and retire this one.

If you would like to check out some of my photos, you can view most of them in my gallery.

You can also find me on Flickr.

Heavy Rain … Or… Press –> to read this post.

Posted by on July 15, 2010 2 comments

After many hours and many times of screaming “No, not that way!!” and “Damnit I DID hit X” I have finished playing through Heavy Rain, the thriller mystery exclusive for the Playstation 3. It took a little longer than I had originally planned due to some frustration with the control scheme and the ever impeding life thing I have going on (I really should do something about that).

Heavy Rain takes us through the story/mystery of the Origami Killer as if affects a family, the detectives searching, and the journalist reporting on it. Unlike some of the other games of this genre, you get to play as each different character to get their point of view on the story, and ultimately drive the story to a unique ending tailored to your actions. This is one of the story points that really makes Heavy Rain stand out. It’s a cleverly disguised “Choose Your Own Adventure” story where, depending on what choices you made, you may get a completely different ending than someone else. Because of the nature of the story, I hesitate to mention any plot line specifics for fear of spoiling it. Instead we will jump to the likes and dislikes.

Likes:
Great Story – Seems like most of the games I have really gotten into as of late have been driven by a good solid story. Heavy Rain really takes the murder mystery story to a whole new level with the different ways you can drive it, including multiple different outcomes. I have said many times that story is really key to a good game so I won’t spend time on this one. The story was good.
Detailed Graphics – The detail that goes into the characters and settings in Heavy Rain is amazing (in some places). If you get the chance I highly suggest checking out some of the bonus videos on the disk that show the actors that portrayed the characters in the game. The fact that they were able to make the in game faces match so perfectly was astounding.
Innovative control scheme – Heavy Rain really takes immerse control to the extreme where you can interact with so many things and each action is meticulous in it’s implementation. The use of the Six Axis to perform tasks like sliding a door, opening a cupboard, or turning a nob worked really well…..for the first 10 min (Continued Bellow).
Multiple perspectives – As the story played out you get to jump from Ethan (The Father), to Madison (The Journalist), to Norman (The Agent), and to Scott (The P.I.). Because of this it almost felt like you were following four different stories, but they all tied together in an amazing way and it was genius to see the same story from all of the different views.
Solid voice acting – None of the voice acting really felt forced like we have seen in other games. Most of the conversation seems to flow naturally and fit the mood of the game very well. The behind the scenes videos showing how they auditioned some of the actors was a great touch. I love watching voice actors perform.

Dislikes:
Suspension of Disbelief – This stemmed from one of the first scenes in the game, hopefully not much of a spoiler, where Ethan looses track of his son in a mall. He can see him only about 30 feet in front of him but the mall is crowded and it’s hard to catch up, even though you are calling out to your son, he blatantly ignores you for the full 20 min you are chasing him (right behind him BTW). The people in the mall actually move in front of you so it makes it even more difficult to catch up. Also, you can’t run so you are doing this at a walking pace. There were quite a few times in the game where I felt that the “fourth wall” was broken due to something completely unbelievable.
Graphic Glitches – So as nice and detailed as the graphics were, there were still quite a few graphics glitches that really took it from a simple glitch to a full blown annoyance. Things like fabric, the clothes they would put on or take off looked horrible. Like they could stand up on their own. Walking around the rooms made your character look like a strung out marionette. It just seemed that in free walk mode the characters had no fluid motion.
Innovative control scheme – So after the first 10 minutes the control scheme starts to really be tedius and aggravating. For example, at one point I needed to walk over to the fridge, tap the analog stick to the left to open the fridge door, tap up to grab the orange juice, shake the controller to shake the juice, tap up again to drink the juice, tap down to put the juice back and tap right to close the fridge. Now count that. That’s 6 button/stick commands to do a simple act of drinking juice. Between each command there is a pause in gameplay so I can issue the next command. Towards the end of the game it wasn’t quite as bad since you aren’t really searching anymore.

For the most part, I didn’t hate the game. The story kept me going and the way the game played out for me was good for how I played it. I really wish that the dislikes didn’t detract from the game as much as they did because it would have made it that much better. As it was I feel like I spent 20 minutes of every hour playing just doing the control gimmicks and tedious button mashing. Overall I enjoyed playing it and would give it a Solid 7 Origami Cranes out of 10.

Naughty Bear…or….20 minutes of game play I’ll never get back

Posted by on June 30, 2010 No comments

Tuesday is new game release day, and Wednesday is new comic day.  Now I don’t typically buy as many new games as I buy comics, but I tend to keep an eye on what’s getting released in the same way.  This last Tuesday saw two releases that I have been watching for a while now.  Lego Harry Potter, and Naughty Bear.  I knew what to expect with any Lego game, while they may tell different stories, the game play is similar across the board.  The Sleeper was Naughty Bear.  I had seen a number of preview videos and some of the trailers, and to be honest, they did their job well and I was enticed.  It looked funny/cute in a “Happy Tree Friends” sort of way.

Sadly, I was wrong.  I bought Naughty Bear at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, got home and played through the first “episode” and instantly knew that I had made a mistake.  I toughed it out and finished the episode, then packed it up and headed back to Gamestop.  Thankfully the gracious personnel there were nice enough to let me swap it out for Lego Harry Potter.

Side note here.  I was warned, by Erin when I bought Naughty Bear, that it was going to be bad.  I decided to make my own judgment.

So what made it so bad?  Well, The idea was good and funny.  Unfortunately that was the extent of the good.  The Premise was that you played Naughty Bear, the bastard step child of this “Care Bear” style island where everything is puppies and kittens.  Some of the other bears on the island have treated you unfairly and you decide to get back at them by being naughty.  Being Naughty can range from scaring them, sabotaging their stuff, or even bashing their stuffed heads in with a baseball bat.  Who wouldn’t think that could be fun?!

What it ended up being was a series of “Challenges” where you had to sneak around and scare/kill your fellow bears while disrupting their activities.  I guess that you could play the game more Sam Fisher style and sneak in the bushes then pop out and scare them, but after the first time you do that they all know you are there, so no more sneaking will help you.  From there is just becomes “I’m going to run around and hit you with a bat”.  When you finish with the bears, you can gain a few extra points by smashing stuff.  And that was it!  After a while, even the narration is grating.

Now, I think the game may be not as bad as I am making it out to be if it weren’t for one more glaringly bad problem, it was release at the price point of $49.99.  For the same price as something like Lego Harry Potter, you get a game that may have done well as an Xbox Arcade title, for maybe $10-$12 bucks

The Graphics were just ok, the actual game mechanics were horrible.  I had to maneuver myself around and fumble with the view to get into a position where I could actually scare another bear.  Just Awful, one of the worst games I have tried.  This may, and I emphasize MAY, be worth it when the price drops down to like $5, which I have no doubt that it will fall to that.

Red Dead Redemption

Posted by on June 7, 2010 1 comment

Yeah it’s been a little while since the last update, mostly because I have been powering through Red Dead Redemption, the latest open world game from Rockstar Games.  (There was also a little time spent down with friends in Fredericksburg, Aw Yeah GhettoCon!)  So after much playing and venturing back and forth from New Austin to Mexico, I have finished the game.  (and to those who know, you just lost the game)

One of the things I love about the open world games from Rockstar is that they know how to write a good story, and then they let you play it out as you like, when you like.  This happened with Grand Theft Auto IV as well.  The story was so engaging that I really felt for some of the characters and cared about what happened with them.  When one of the characters wronged me, I felt no compunction when it came time to choose to kill them or let them live.  I also became attached to certain characters and found myself wondering if there would be more missions with them or if I would even run into them again.

This happened in spades in RDR.  From the very start of the story I began to meet characters that made me want to work on the story more than the side missions.  I almost wish that there was some sort of random mission generator that would involve the storyline characters more instead of just standard NPC’s, but I am getting ahead of myself.

The story starts out with John Marston getting escorted into a train to the middle of nowhere in New Austin to Confront one of his old Gang Member friends Bill Williams.  John, not being all that smart, confronts Bill outside of a heavily guarded fort and gets himself shot.  Thankfully, a local Rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, comes to your rescue and nurses you back to health.  As it turns out these Shady government types have kidnapped your Wife and Son and are holding them until you turn in your former game members.  The story has you venturing all through New Austin to hunt down these gang members. Along the way you learn how to ranch, hunt down other law breakers, fuel a Mexican Revolution, and explore a number of interesting characters.  So as to not spoil anything, I will stop there with the story and move to game play.

Rockstar is very well known for their open world games and with RDR they took it to the next level.  The setting was absolutely stunning.  Everywhere I went I found myself stopping for a moment to admire the graphics and the environment.  There is something about watching the sun set over the Mexican desert while sitting on the back of your horse who just saved you by outrunning the bandits that were chasing you down.  As I have stated before, the story is awesome.  It engages you, it pulls at your heart strings, and even enrages you at some points.  (I found myself exclaiming as certain points “Damn I hope I get to kill that guy!)

I actually had only a few issues with the game.  There is an aiming system that allows you to snap to a target, kind of like Modern Warfare of Bad Company, when zooming in.  This is a blessing and a curse.  I found myself accidentally snapping to the wrong target a few times and shooting Lawmen instead of Bandits, Stagecoach drivers instead of Bandits, etc.  This resulted in some unwanted bounties and loss of honor.  I didn’t bother to reload thought because. well, accidents happen!  Also, watch out for bears.  There is a reason why they are the Number One Threat to America.  My last complaint is a little bit of a spoiler so I will do my best to talk around it.  After the ending, which is very touching and I loved it, being able to continue roaming the world is great, but I felt very disconnected from the character after that point.  Through all the rest of the story you really start to identify with Marsten and his troubles, after the ending, Marsten just isn’t the same and I felt awkward playing as him.

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Overall the game is outstanding and well worth the many many many hours spent playing it.  I only wish there were more story.

Also….Poor Bonnie.


Iron Man 2

Posted by on May 12, 2010 1 comment

So it’s about time I finally got around to writing up my thoughts on the new Iron Man movie. Seeing as how it was back on Saturday that I went to see it. Honestly there is not a lot to say since I am a big comic book nerd (cue Ogre screaming NERDS!!!) I am a little biased when it comes to comic book based movies. Even the abomination that is Spider-man 3 holds a special place in my heart…a cold dark place in my heart where hopefully no one will ever have to watch it ever again. The thing about the Iron Man movies is that, wait for it,…….. I am not that big of an Iron Man comic fan!. I know I know, but I never really got that into him. If I wanted an eccentric millionaire that net his money on super hero toys I would just read Batman. Of course Tony Stark had a one up on Bruce Wayne in that he actually got drunk and didn’t just fake it. But I digress.

Sarah and I met up with some friends to catch a 5pm show in Fairfax. It was originally going to be the 4:30 show but the directors hall (fancy theater where you get to pick your seats) was nearly sold out. This caused a minor panic and had me getting to the theater for the 5pm show at like 3:30 to be in the non-existent line. Go me. Needless to say there was a lot of sitting and waiting. During this time Sarah discovered Plants Vs Zombies on the iPad and came to the realization that this new gadget of mine can stay…. Of course she renamed it the iPvZ device. Anyways, movie time rolled around and we took our seats. I used the best possible time to escape for a pre-movie bio run during the new twilight trailer, oh noes, did I miss anything important?. Yeah I didn’t think so.

——–Spoilers!!!  Skip Ahead if you don’t want to be spoiled————

For this movie it’s established that Mr. Stark is the Iron Man and now big brother wants to get his hands on the tech, but Tony isn’t selling. While the Govt. is claiming that others are creating suits to match Tony proves otherwise with his super transparent phone and everyone is happy. Well, except this Russian guy who is really into whips and has the stalker wall of Tony. Oh by the way turns out that the gizmo in Tony’s chest that’s keeping him alive is also killing him, so he goes a little bananas. Whip dude invents a suit and comes after Tony and bam the Govt. says “I told you so”.

So Tony works on getting hammered to finish himself off and Tony’s competitor enlists the help of whip dude to build some new suits, like we don’t see that backfiring in the future. Now Tony’s friend Rhody comes in to snag a suit and tell Tony off and Shield. Swoops in to clean up the mess that is left over, mostly Tony. They tell Tony that he doesn’t have to die, he just needs a good hardware based montage to find the answer. Bam just like that Tony invents a new element and he is healed!! (although the healing tastes like coconut).

Now Tony feels better, Rhody has a new and improved suit thanks to some new guns strapped to it, and whip dude has created an army of robot drones that are controlled from an orbiting space station that gets taken out by a kid and a droid….wait wrong movie. But the robot army is real. Tony receives a plot device, er, I mean phone call from whip dude boasting that he is going to blow up some of Tony’s stuff, Tony swoops in and saves the day and realizes that even he needs friends. Then everyone hugs and they fly off into the night.

———End Spoilers————–

Ok so maybe there was a little more to it than that, but you get the picture. Now, things I loved about the movie were:

Playful banter, somehow Robert Downy Jr just knows how to do the banter shtick. It worked great in IM1 and in Sherlock Holmes, and it works great here. The playful banter between him and Pepper Potts was great.

Simple plot, there was not a lot to the story here and that’s a good thing. A lot of time the superhero movies get mired down in story after story all piled on top of each other, and it just gets messy. One villain (unless you count Tony’s demise as a villain) and one main plot. Simple and great.

Great action, all of the action sequences where very comic book. Nothing overly Hollywood about them.

As for the things I didn’t like….there were very few. They could have explained a little more about the random cameos, the cap shield, Black Widow, etc. But it wasn’t that bad without it. Really I just liked the movie. If Marvel keeps with this recipe then they will do well with the rest of the Avenger cast movies!!

Wow, I thought when I started this that I wouldn’t have that much to say, I guess I was wrong. I am giving Iron Man 2 a good 8 arc reactors out of 10.

Quick Aside, this post written entirely on the iPad, and my hand kind of hurts now.

Jonah Hex

Posted by on April 30, 2010 No comments

It’s now secret that I am a comic book fan.  (Fan is probably an understatement)  I love the super hero comics and even some of the Sci fi type comics.  The one odd ball in my current pull list is Jonah Hex.  I don’t know what it is about Jonah Hex as a comic but it really appealed to me.  For those that don’t know, Jonah Hex is an Old West style spaghetti western type comic.  The character of Hex is a Bounty Hunter who used to fight in the civil war.  He was raised by Indians and is a tough as nails, hard to kill bad ass.  Imagine Batman in the old west (with no money and a scared up face).  Hex has no powers and no reservations on who should live or die, as long as he gets paid.  The comic is gritty and real(ish, it is a comic after all.)  That’s the main draw for me.  Simpler time where the line between black and white was much thinner, and there were no real politics to how Hex handled situations, and no hidden motives.  So two years ago I heard they were planning a Jonah Hex movie.  I was elated!  The story could have been pulled from any of the great runs of the comic and been amazing.

Skip ahead to the present.  Many announcements were made about the movie.  Josh Brolin was cast as the lead and I thought “Yeah, I can see that”.  Even him talking about the makeup and the limitations of doing the Eye and the Lip skin flap, and how they had to fall back on how it looks now because it was the most feasible, it’s all understandable.  I groaned when I heard Megan Fox was cast.  (Personally I think as long as she shuts up she is ok.)  I secretly wished she would be cast as Tallulah Black.  (Tallulah ended up as another severely scarred up Bounty Hunter.)

So now we have the trailer launched.  I see the story they are going for and I am thinking……WTF?!?!  Take a look for yourself:

Seriously.  Hex is not “Supernatural”.  He has no powers.  He got his scared up face from the Apache Indians!  Why did they think they needed to go with some strange powers just because it’s a comic book movie?!?  Look at 3:10 to Yuma.  It was a great Western movie with a bad ass and it worked!  That should be the same recipe for Jonah Hex!  I know I will still go and see the movie because I want to see more comics made into movies but I reserve the right to be upset about the changes to a beloved character.

Sigh