Tag Archives: Theater

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.

Bob and Steve Ride Again

Posted by on April 29, 2010 1 comment

When America needs a hero, when Freedom stands alone, Americas top agents will defend our liberty from those who wish us harm.  Let is join Special Agent Bob and Secret Agent Steve, two of the finest official unofficial splinter cells.

That’s right, Splinter Cell is back and it’s awesome.  (Sometimes I wonder if I use the word awesome too much…hmmm)  Splinter Cell Conviction came out this month and I finally got around to focusing on it.  (it’s been a rough few weeks with travel and such)  I managed to finish the outstanding single player campaign last night and was very impressed with the story.  The story for this episode of “Sam Fisher kills everyone” is that Sam discovers that his Daughter is still alive and vows to do anything it takes to get her back!  Oh and something about saving the President and such too.  For the first time in a SC story I felt genuinely involved in the story!  There was an actual level of attachment where I cared about the characters that I haven’t gotten in other SC games.  Most of them before just seemed like puzzle games where I can see how I can get from one side of the map to the other without killing anyone or annihilating everyone.  So this was a nice change of pace.  Finishing up the single player game meant that I unlocked all the weapons I would need for Multi-player.

Before I get into Multi-player, I feel I should mention the Bob and Steve thing. So a few years ago a couple of guys did a little machinima called “Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater” and the stars were Bob and Steve.

There are actually 11 total episodes and they are hilarious.  So, when I heard that Splinter Cell Conviction would have Co-Op multi-player, I talked with my friend Lee and we decided that it was game on for Bob and Steve.  Not so much with the making of Videos and such, but honestly, that’s how we play.  If you watch these videos you will see EXACTLY how Lee and I play SC.  Last night was a great example.  We joined up to start working on the Co-Op campaign and ended nearly in tears as we tried to extract on the helicopter.  (GET DOWN HERE AND REVIVE ME YOU BASTARD!!  NO I Do NOT want to Jump over the RAIL!)

I will work on getting to more of the other side stuff like Deniable Ops and such, but in the meantime, Splinter Cell Conviction gets an 8 Donald Sutherland’s out of 10.  (watch episode 11)