Movie Reviews: Star Trek Into Darkness

      Today I went to the theater to see Star Trek Into Darkness. I was lucky enough to be able to watch it a day earlier than the national release in the US. I've seen most of the other movies in the Star Trek series and I think the other movies allowed me to appreciate this movie even more so if you haven't watch Star Trek The Wrath of Khan, I would advise you to do that before going to see this movie because there are many similarities and even a reference to it. I think JJ Abrams did a really good job with this movie, he took the Wrath of Khan and updated it to flow with the newest movie. All of the acting was very well done and the plot/storyline was really well written. Most of the best jokes were given to Scotty and they are mostly one-liners. I loved the switch that occurred from the Wrath of Khan to Into Darkness with respect to a Spock/Kirk scene that really shows how much changed since Nero changed history. All in all, the movie was really good, I laughed, I cried, I waited to see who would live and who would die. There were a couple parts of the movie where I had to remind myself that JJ Abrams was directing instead of Joss Whedon. Not only were some of the camera directions similar but JJ started pulling a Joss stunt where he likes to kill main characters - not to spoil anything but you will have to watch the movie to see what I mean. Overall, I highly recommend this movie for your summer entertainment (although I did prefer Iron Man 3). This movie should not disappoint the Trek fans.

Cue trailer:

 

Happy Mothers Day! and Preview Agents of SHIELD

      I hope everyone is enjoying their Mothers Day with a mom, wife, daughter, sister, etc. I didn't have much money to buy my mom anything so my genius plan was to bake her a cake. First let me mention I have never baked a cake before. Now that being said, the baking part was no problem. My problems came when I first started to decorate the cake with frosting. The frosting was a little cup of Pillsbury frosting that I got at Walmart and it said to give it some flavor, you could mix it with Cool-Aid. I tried a little frosting mixture first to see how it tasted. It was horrible. It was okay for the first couple of seconds but the sour hit you like a sideswipe with a bus. I didn't want to waste the frosting though so I put it towards the center of the cake and used the un-sour frosting to cover the rest of the cake. This way my mom will enjoy the cake when she starts at the edges and then when she gets to the center it will be a BAM moment.
      This weekend was also the start of Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, SC. My parents went and when they tried to get me to go with them I gave the excuse that there wasn't anyone there that was even remotely close to my age. When they got back, the let me know that it was a lot of fun and I should've went down with them. After a short inquiry, I learned they had spent the day bar hopping and riding on the motorcycle with 11 other people. That all sounded fine until I learned that they were one of the youngest people in the group. I had the sound of brakes squealing inside my head. They really wanted me to spend my weekend hanging out with geriatrics? If they were the youngest, I would look like an infant. Absolutely not. I've spent the remainder of my weekend desperate to find people my age in my area to see what they do on the weekends.

      In other news, SHIELD has a new promotion video out on Youtube. You can view it here:

      I am really excited about this show. I loved Agent Coulson and to have him back is simply awesome but to have him back in a television show instead of a movie, I think, is spectacular because we will get more of him than just a two hour storyline. I really liked the Avengers movie and I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon (I grew up on Buffy) so I can honestly say I have never been so excited for a show that hasn't even aired yet.

 

Happy Mothers Day Everyone!!

Movie Reviews: Iron Man 3

      I went to a special 9pm screening of Iron Man 3 on Thursday May 2nd and I got to see it in 3D. I loved the movie. I was a little worried about what direction the movie would take in a post-Avengers world but I think the writers did a very good job making a story realistic after the revelation of god-like aliens and an alien invasion. I think they did a really good job giving Tony Stark PTSD after everything he went through in New York and it helped the storyline make sense with him not simply calling his Avenger friends for help. I loved watching Tony Stark deal with PTSD because he is such a narcissist, this was an interesting way to delve more into the character. I really liked the interaction between Tony and Harley, a kid who shows up with sarcasm of his own to help Tony when he needs it. Usually kid sidekicks are annoying and wine a lot but Harley was a fun annoying because he annoyed Tony and Tony would say things to the kid that most adults wouldn't. The interaction was fun for me as a viewer. I found the movie had equal parts of humor, action, and romance but the Shane Black, the director made it feel more like a Bruce Willis  is Tony Stark Die Hard Iron Man movie. I think Jon Favreau did a better job directing the first Iron Man. One part of the movie that will inevitably be a hot topic among hard core Iron Man comic fans is the portrayal of Mandarin. I really loved Ben Kingsley's Mandarin but I hadn't seen him in comic form. I do know that the movie version of the character needed to be more realistic and that is why he was changed but he has become one of my favorite movie villains.
      The scene at the end of the credits is also worth mentioning. I enjoyed it and found it comedic even though it wasn't a preview of the next movie in the series coming out. I don't want to give any spoilers but another Marvel character joins Tony Stark and the two have worked together in The Avengers movie.

      I hope you all watch Iron Man 3 in theaters and enjoy.