Welcome back man! I was wondering where the hell you were! Sucks about college man, and everything else. Hope things look up more in the future!
I'm Back (Part 2)
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 On 12/15/2013 at 03:21 AM by Super Step See More From This User » |
Yup, seems like there was just too much crap in here to post as one blog.
Netflix: Because Fuck It, I Don't Feel Like Getting Up Today
I haven't stepped foot in a movie theater since my friends and I saw The World's End at the start of the semester, and I can't review that for you cause that was the day I had just got back into town and I fell asleep after the hours of packing and traveling I endured. The beginning looked promising and it involved robots that bled blue ink, that's all I can tell you.
I also don't own a television, and left my box of gaming goodness with my friend, since he does. Not much to report as far as our multiplayer sessions, except that Goldeneye is still Goldeneye.
As far as books, I plan to finish Mockingjay pretty soon before I see Catching Fire with my family. Otherwise, I was too busy reading literally all 400-ish pages of a textbook for one class, as well as 30+ page articles, book chapters, and more textbook pages in another class to really want to devote much time to recreational reading.
Luckily, Youtube and Netflix were there for me this semester. For the most part, I just watched Game Grumps and SourcefedNerd Table Talks on Youtube. Can't really say much about those, really. Some of the stuff I watched on Netflix, however, was a bit more meaty.
For instance:
Axl Rose ain't got nothin' on this.
I watched the whole television series and the movie Trigun: Badlands Rumble just recently as the semester ended. Both were damn good.
I will say I had a few problems with Trigun as a series. I thought the music was a bit too repetitive and not all that memorable, to be honest. I mean I liked it enough, it's got a cool hard rock style that dates it in somewhat of a good way, but at the same time it's a bit generic and bland. There were some Dragon Ball Z-esque moments where I wanted everyone to just shut up and shoot already. Whoever the voice actor was for the Nebraska Family's ... dad, I guess, grated on me in the episode in which they appear. Some of the animation looked a bit cheap, and I wasn't always enthralled by the action sequences. The first half of the series, while certainly endearing and charming, wasn't near as interesting as the latter half. I felt some of the first episodes were unnecessary, because it started to seem like there was a Power Rangers-esque formulaic rehashing of plot arcs and themes in them.
The one with the teeth is as annoying as he looks.
Despite my complaints though, it was definitely well worth watching for its lead character alone. I won't spoil anything, but Vash the Stampede is possibly my new favorite character in anything I've read or seen. It's refreshing to have someone with a rough backstory who does the opposite of brood about it. The way his past is unveiled little by little over time, after the story sucks you in with the mystery of why so much damage is left in this guy's wake all the time is a stroke of brillaince on the part of whoever wrote this.
The side characters are interesting and endearing as well, minus a few of the hired guns that I thought seemed a bit like throwaway Metal Gear Solid bosses. Aside from those hired guns though, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, the insurance girls trying to track Vash down and keep him under 24-hour surveillance to ensure he can't cause more damage that would be a liablility for their agency, are excellent foils for each other. Meryl is a serious workaholic and always focused on the task at hand. Milly is a happy-go-lucky ditz that loves to binge on food and drink. They sound like a two-dimensional odd-couple, but they're both fleshed out in ways that make them incredibly endearing. They're both good-hearted people trying their best.
Also, Milly's giant gun is pretty funny considering her saccharine personality.
Then you've got a preacher man, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who doesn't follow the law of "Thou Shall Not Kill" too well. He also has a humorously oversized weapon, and acts as both a compliment and foil for Vash's character. He went to Men's Warehouse, and he likes the way he looks.
Anyone else remember the Djesus Unchained sketch from SNL? That was great.
Then you've got the major villains, Legato and Knives. I didn't find Legato that interesting, but he was involved in a pretty major piece of character development for Vash that made for one of the most challenging and interesting episodes in the series. Knives is also a big source of Vash's character development and just a great villain in general. I'll leave the reasons why a mystery, cause watching its mysteries unfold is half the fun of watching the series, for me at least.
Anyway, Trigun is a space western anime with good action, good humor, awesome characters and a great story. I recommend it.
Trigun: Badlands Rumble is, like Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, a movie that takes place somewhere in the middle of the series, and maintains the general feel, characters, and themes of the show, but features a villain not involved in the main series plot and in this case, much higher production value than the actual series.
While Cowboy Bebop: The Movie was good, but didn't quite match the quality of the series, I thought Trigun: Badlands Rumble felt just like one of the better early Trigun episodes, only much-improved aesthetically and otherwise.
Like, Seriously ... A Really Big Difference in Production Value
Does Kevin Spacey ever not play a hardass businessman of some sort?
I also watched the first three episodes of this series. At first, I thought Kevin Spacey was going to be too much of an asshole for me to want to watch further. He and his wife in this seem like pretty despicable people. But, I am pretty fascinated by how the series portrays the seedy, underhanded dealings of Washington politics and journalism. I could not give less of a shit about a couple of the side characters who are sleeping with each other, but anything involving Kevin Spacey or Rooney Mara's characters holds my attention pretty well. I think I'll be watching the other eight episodes over the break.
Finally, I did manage to catch the second season of Legend of Korra on nick.com. It was a mixed bag, but the guy on the left in the image above, Verick, is one of my new favorite characters in the series as a whole. His eccentric Howard Hughes-like nature and one-liners were hilarious.
As for the other characters, some of them seemed like they had been possessed by a dark spirit or something. For some reason, they made Police Chief Lin Bei Fong a real dumbass, and Korra a real asshole for much of the series. Bolin kind of turned into a jackass too, but at least his way of doing it was consistent with his personality. The other two just got way too stupid and mean-spirited for who they're supposed to be.
Also, a lot of scenes taking place in the dark spirit world had backgrounds that were a little too sparse and balnd, and the lighter side of the spirit world felt a little too cute and cuddly for my tastes. Some of the designs for the bad guys and spirits, especially towards the end, made me felt like I was watching Digimon. As in, a show aimed exclusively at kids, rather than for everyone like the series generally is. Which is weird, cause some of the earlier episodes felt like adult political dramas. I liked those better, honestly.
Still, overall I liked the plot and animation, especially the two episodes explaining the origin of the Avatar. I really liked and needed the message about finding your own identity at the end of the series as well. I can't complain too much.
Well, that's what I've been up to in my absence.
Oh, and I actually did a lot of gaming. It's just that most of it was playing Free Tetris. Here's my score from last night:
I live for the applause, plause.
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