Midnight Review of "X-Men: The Last Stand"

Josh and I planned on seeing this a few weeks ago and Matt and Jen were gathering a group as well. We caught up with them at Barnes & Noble and Will and I geeked out on comic stuff. We then went in and I played some of the clips on my iPod as we waited. Now, to the movie.

The movie revolves around the development of a cure for mutation that threatens mutant existence. Magneto and his followers believe it is an attack on the mutant community. We also see the return of Jean Grey as the incredibly powerful Phoenix. One thing that got to me was the explanation of the Phoenix for the movie continuity. Although I prefer their reasoning for movie audiences than the comic one, it made Professor X seem like a jerk. Others didn't like the "Serenity factor" that if you see the movie, you'll know what I'm referring to.

Personally, I liked the movie. I really enjoyed it and it was visually neat. Josh very rarely likes many movies so I don't take his interpretations very seriously. Listening to him complain on the way home I could tell he was reaching for reason to hate it. Everyone except me and one other guy felt disappointed but it was what I expected. I knew it would feel different because of the change of direction. As for the other two movies, the third one felt slightly betrayed. In a small nitpick, the first two started with a narration by Xavier followed by a CGI opening sequence. The third one has no narration and begins with chronological flashbacks before giving the credits.

On the whole, I enjoyed this movie and I would see it again. To those who didn't like it, I asked, "Which is better: X3 or Fantastic 4?" It was very hard for some to answer. I liked the movie because of the explosion of evil in this. Finally a relentless Magneto and Brotherhood! Some complained that they didn't develop the new characters because some don't really need or require an advanced backstory. Also they complained that Rogue was useless, but she was already in X2. I do like what they did with the characters because they don't have hundreds of movies to evolve characters slowly. Also, the franchise is still open and I encourage people to stay after the credits when you see this movie.

My review: 8.5 out of 10- Although others felt disappointed, I didn't give it unreal expectations.
DVD-worthy: Yes, I will probably do a midnight run to get this movie.

Your IQ Is 120

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Looks like I went up from last time.

It's Electric! 

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Ethics: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

You Passed 8th Grade Geography

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Geography?

Free Comic Book Day

Today was Free Comic Book Day. I went over to Krypton because they had Sarah Douglas, the actress who played Ursa in Superman II. I didn't get in line but she seemed really nice. There were so many nerds in costume, especially Jedi and stormtroopers. I was there for a while and then I went to Dragon's Lair in Millard. Not only were they giving out the standard free books, but they were also giving away other free ones. There was a good amount of Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men but I am done with the series. I picked up a few good ones and then went to see what the other Dragon's Lair had. I picked up a few more and then I maxed out on comics. That's good. Now I have to read!

Finals Bi-Polar

All this week I wish I had another week. It's weird what college does to a person. It's the only time when you don't look forward to summer for some reason. Having nothing to do isn't great, it's boring. Before my World Civ test today I totally wanted another week. After the test, my hand hurt and I was so ready to go home. I have finals bi-polar or something. Oh well, I'm excited to go home and take it easy for a couple days until I start work on Monday.

My US & Canada test was good and for Urban Geography we watched Falling Down. Good movie. The World Civ test went well and I think I did good on it. I got my Con Law take home final done (finally) today and I think/hope I did well. I gave Dr. Slaymaker my paper because he wanted to use it as an example. He said I got a B in the class. That makes me happy considering how my first test went.

Well, to everyone up at Wayne, see you in 3 months!

I hate you, Kenny

So it turns out they're going to release the Star Wars films on DVD again as individual two-disc editions with both the 2004 special editions and the original unaltered theatrical editions as bonus material. Thank you so much, Lucasfilm, for having us buy a trilogy DVD pack when you plan on releasing them again and again. They'll be out only from September 12 to December 31 so it looks like I'll be buying that, again. Why? Because I'm insane. Plus, it never hurts to have more than one copy of Star Wars. Believe me, I will now have 3 after this.

The Week of Film Clips

Wow, new footage was released for 3 of the summer's hot movies:

X-Men: The Last Stand - Wolverine vs. Sentinel clip
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Trailer
Superman Returns - Full Trailer

Review of "Crash"

We had to pick a movie to watch for Urban Geography. Tough homework. We picked Crash because it was the closest thing we could think of that would show city dynamics. This movie is a very powerful film. I don't think it was a good as previous Oscar winners but it is still very well told. The cast is huge so you can't really focus on one character because everything comes full circle. The movie is basically on racism in Los Angeles. It shows different people in different situations and how they react to the situations. It illustrates the snap judgments and tensions we all experience at some point. It shows you that sometimes those feelings are justified but most of the time people call a situation totally false.

I really enjoyed this film and I recommend watching it at least once. I also not recommending watching the menu for more that 15 seconds because the looping music doesn't last very long and, on its own, it very annoying. Just ask my class and the Class Evaluator who had to listen to it for about 10 minutes. Honestly though, watch this movie, it is very eye-opening.

My rating: 9.5 out of 10
DVD-worthy: At this point, with all the hype, it's most likely expensive but I probably will own this movie.

I actually knew the answers

I am such a slacker. I really should blog more. It's not that I don't care, it's just that nothing seems to happen. Today we had no Bertolas class but if we went to the Undergraduate Research Celebration, we would get the questions for the final on Hawaii. It started at about 2:00 and I showed up at 2:30ish and there's most of my class looking bored. I sat next to Dan and he told me he had been sitting there since it started and that he had ice cream, saw the posters, and watched the movie twice waiting for Dr. Bertolas. I waited for a while and then Cara called him. He was at his office so she told him to get here because we're waiting. He tells her that the questions are already there. So everyone scatters like a scavenger hunt looking for this paper. We find it and leave. Too funny.

I had my World Lit final today rather than Friday, nice. I was so mad at myself for not knowing #10 on the last test but I redeemed myself by having notes on every question and I was able to write on everyone with detail. I also wasn't the first one done so I knew I wrote more that others in the class. I may reward myself by going to Norfolk and buying Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 13 early and getting my Wal-Mart supplies since Wayne has none of it here.