The children of Lorien

This is kind of funny, it took me way to long to come up with a title for this blog, my last good review(I believe that would be for The Warriors Way) was pretty damn easy, it was the opening line of the movie this one hmm not so much.

This movie opens to a scene in the jungle, you pan over a small village, then some trees, then a lit up bungalo out in the middle of the trees. You see two mosquito netted beds, with someone asleep in each one, something jiggles the handle at the front door. A man stands up, grabs an interesting looking curved blade with a weird glowing blue ball near the bottom and cautiously walks up to the door. The handle stops moving, he peers out sees nothing is about to turn around when the door is engulfed(by what you don't see just yet) and the young boy who was asleep in the other bed goes tearing out of the window(his window jump was good, but Scott Pilgrim gets that award) after a series of jumps, tumbles and flips he winds up (by the throat) in the hands of some weird bald dude with weird markings on his head. In a gravelly voice the man tells him how fun it's going to be to kill him, runs him through with a blade of his own, and he turns to dust.

The trailers for: "I am number 4"

Disney's Prom

I almost thought this was "High School Musical" whatever because I mean thats what it looked like:a generic angsty teen age movie where the kids were basically hashing out what they were going to do for their last big hurrah: Senior(I'm assuming) Prom. It appears to follow the "hi jinx" of 4 couples(actually 3 couples and one dude trying to ask out his high school crush, snake bit doesn't begin to explain the futility of dudes attempts). Nope not even remotely interested in this movie further the fact that it made me think it was another movie I had no desire to see did not bode well for it in my mind. There have been a million "Teen coming of age" movies many of them were epic and we fell in love with them:Weird Science, 16 Candles, The breakfast club, hell Superbad, Ferris Beulers day off, meatballs okay problem is many of the movies that are going to pop into my head were the classics from my day. I guess Juno could be considered one as well, Clueless, minds drawing a blank really on some of the names I can see some of the actors faces but see that is me going through a lot more work then is necessary for a movie I think is going to be dull and boring.

X-men:First Class

Long day, bone tired

Okay due to situations beyond my control today ended after 9pm for me. So no I'm not in a good mood, "The Losers" came out on HBO tonight so that was kinda cool. I'm currently downloading the "Killzone 3 single player demo" from PSN, I was about to play Black Ops but it seems that attack on Sony's network I was reading about earlier popped up. A long expansive new TOS(Terms of Service for those who never got those warnings back in the AOL days), that probably provided me more eye strain than any 3D movie I ever tried to watch wearing glasses.

Before I stepped out to make my last delivery tonight i had STARTED the trailer blog for "I am number 4", I was talking about X-men:First Class, I'm doing this blog from my android as not to remove that one from my screen. Damn this is a long D/L it started oit at 34 minutes, not one to easily fall asleep when the sun goes down Boredom is boredom.

Now to be honest I have not played a single Killzone before, I know it was the supposed Halo killer but to my knowledge it never lived up to the hype. Was Halo perfect no(damn near, but no), it was fun as hell though. It allowed me and my siblings and my young wife a chance to bond, smack talk, and enjoy evenings at home together, aaaah good times. Pre halo I hated FPS' they were always clunky and awkward but after Bungie's epic I gained a new appreciation for the Genre.

Man my lids are heavy sitting here doing nada, the trailer blog is one of Two blogs I mentioned wanting to do on facebook the other is of course the review of the movie. 8 minutes left on the killzone Demo, I hope its fun. Putting this blog down may take a short nap since the content is taking its sweet old time

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On the way to the Malco Stage rd 13

Another movie night, a different venue. It seems that the Raligh Springs 12 has been demoted to 2 shows a day on week nights and 3 a day on weekends. It seems times are truly hard for a pimp out here. But the Stage 13 isn't a bad venue either, nice seating, concessions ain too pricey, nor are tickets.

Not to say its perfect, the raleigh 12 is a short walk away(as previous blogs will attest), stage is a car ride away no matter what. So stage means no cardio, no blogging along the way(unless Lank, yeah yeah his nick name, decides to drive) no blogging and driving ladies and gents. Lank ain too much for before or after movie convo, but he's cool when he does chime in.

Aiight enough rambling on I have a blog to write about the trailers and then about the movie

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A little randomosity passenger interaction if you would

While I have more than 160 entries on this here bloggie I believe I have a total of maybe 10 or 12 responses. As such I am curious as to how I could get you the reader to chime in a little more often, and I know ego maniacs that we web denizens tend to be usually this means "how can I drive traffic without having to do anything". Well as is hopefully obvious by now, I'm not your normal my way or the highway type.

I am really asking:Do you want more details in your movie review? More character backstory/my thoughts on the actor(s)? Do you want more pictures and possibly some shakey cam video(taken with a smart phone so expect to see nose hairs)? Would you like me to add some games to the blog to give your eyes a chance to heal from the excessive strain I put on them? Would you like me to add the youtube widget or some other(non porn sorry blog rules still apply) video/content site? Would you like me to visit your blog and see if I can survive in your domain?

Do I need to get the content production back up to end of 2010 levels? Thats something I want to do anyway so thats an easy request, like I said my brain has thawed/flipped the LP/ rebooted so somebody is actually at the helm again. Would you like me to partake in some of the blog challenges going around(if you do I reserve the right to call you Evil Minions and make a whiny blog afterwards, I hate deadlines)? I thought I would ask to see what responses if any I would get, maybe I could embarass myself by showing how little I know(but how quickly I could google) about the country with the highest visitor count outside the united states.

I love a good challenge minus to hard a deadline I don't mind a timer just not a "you have until such and such time to hand me this, but don't give it to me before such date/time". I know thats really sad but as I am getting nearer to the crotchety old geezer stage of life I am less inclined to be compliant with annoyances. If I ever make it to the 3 legged stage of life I fully expect to be unbearable and annoying :) .

3 blogs in 3 days if only I could get my but to exercise like I'm blogging again, oh well I'll move when I'm good and ready and not a cheese burger before

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To those who continue to come by

Wave hi, thank you very much. I know that for the majority of the last month I really didn't do much to earn some of your devoted readership. I was flaky, I wasn't here, I would bounce in and out(hell I would look at my blog go meh and veg, okay and yes some porn was watched), I wouldn't finish blogs. And yet lo and behold every time there was a new update, I got visits. Not only the type of visits that are counted in dear old blogger/blogspot land but also the types of hits that are counted in my google analytics account. Some of you have even subscribed to my RSS feed(awesome), and I really don't deserve you because I've been a major tool, I'm talking sawzaw/jack hammer tool.

Plus as I have often mentioned unlike most writers(and if my lovely wife starts a blog she will be getting all types of Promo's on here YAAAY baby, what she's my wife I can't like for her to get attention and feel like the bomb. I think she's awesome, plus you know she's a great person she stays married to me, Sainthood I tell ya) I don't do a lot of self promotion. I don't it's like counter to my Zen approach to my life. I'll be me and you'll probably bump into me, maybe ya like me maybe ya don't, it's all good either way. I can't really call myself a writer though(unless this and other blogs count) because while I do have a story in my head I have yet to write Paragraph one. It keeps rattling around in my head because I don't like the "details" I want it to be real, palpable, edible. I guess like most people I am trying to write the Blah, blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah. Look I have a somewhat weirdish comic book (well 4 or 5 part graphic novel but stay with me) running through my head based on some off balanced characters with some extreme dependencies and when I originally envisioned this story some 18 years ago I had a really specific way I wanted the story to go. Now I still do but I need to sit my tail down and start writing it. There I mentioned it, didn't give away too many details that may cause me to get story jacked(though to be fair, this is my blog and it will be time and date stamped so it isn't like I couldn't just point to it and say here, mine, already discussed) and have come off completely flaky again It ain easy being greasey baby.

Yeah I probably need to stop being a tool about that too, just go ahead and write something so that once it is complete I can vilify it complain and then rework it(yes I am that hard on myself that I would write it out, and bag on myself all day for the mistakes I made, Capricorn) and than possibly be happier about a second or third rewrite.  Oh well I WAS gonna play Black Ops but it seems my console isn't getting a proper IP address so time to watch Bleach, Naruto and hit the sheets. Til Manana folks

And the winner of the awesomest older brother of the year

Once upon a time in the city of Memphis

 They may have been 2 days late, it may not be all of them, but my baby brother got the ALMOST complete set of Scott Pilgrim books, Ironically enough Scott Pilgrim vs. the world(the book for which the movie was made) ISsssssssssss......... out of print *face palm*, yes we would have been pressing the awesome button full speed ahead except book 2 is no longer being printed, which means I'm going to have to E-bay it probably to get him the complete set. As with many other comic/anime/graphic novel to movie transitions while we had heard of scott pilgrim vs. we hadn't really read them because well basically I'm a marvel whore and unless it was a passing "oooh I gots ta have it" fancy my money went to marvel comics. And for those who don't know my most recent marvel "obsession"(is obsession even a strong enough word) is the ultimate series TPB or trade paperbacks. I'm old, I'm cranky and I want the whole storyline in one book, thus I go back and by the trades volume by volume and let my eyes feast.  Now by ultimate I don't just mean THE Ultimates, I mean ultimate X-men, Ultimate spidey, Ultimate FF, and the ultimates.

 Scott Pilgrim though was printed by Oni Press created by  Bryan lee O'Malley from Toronto. On my various movie sites that I like to frequent(and I have mentioned them plenty of times before and will mention them in the labels) Scott Pilgrim was getting a lot of buzz, so me and baby bro(he doesn't frequent said sites but he did like Lead actor Micheal Cera because of "Superbad") went to check it out in the movies. Just prior to the movies release PSN(playstation network) put out an 8 bit inspired game about Mr. Pilgrim and it was a blast so okay we are gonna go check out this goofy movie that we didn't know much about.

And we LOVED IT, the whole movie:the gay room mate, the 7 evil EX's, the fact that Michael Cera was perfect for the part because he makes a great goofy loser, which made him perfect for Scott's goofy every day demeanor and the SHOCK of him kicking MAJOR LEAGUE BOOTAY so much more fun. July and her auto censor, the way music played an integral part and wasn't just like a thrown in for extra teen ANGSTINESS(eh don't start my blog another word I made up DO NOT CARE). So yeah for a character we knew pretty much nothing about except for a trailer here and there and an 8 bit game our socks were knocked off, to say Scotty P was a wise investment is an understatement. So after waiting for it to come out on DVD we do(okay blu  ray, I like to keep my movies especially the new good ones where I can find them 1 blu ray player in the house NO WHERE ELSE TO WATCH THEM) and while some folks don't like the fact that I watch the extras from time to time, Ero Kitsune(yeah yeah I have an american nom de plume him japanese, I swear not my fault he chose it on his own) will watch them with me. Can I tell you the extras just made this movie funnier, I didn't even get to the "auditions yet, or half the behind the scenes stuff" oh no the blooper reel and the deleted scenes are just classic. I want to say this, whoever directed scott pilgrim the movie is EVIL, just see how many takes the "delivery" scene took.

And as with most movies we like we want to know the back story, thing is I'm a on a Deadpool kick now so meh wasn't really interested in reaching out to a new series, baby bro though really wanted to read all the books. And what do you know his birthday was coming up and HayLeeeeeeew(going for a Mrs. Doubtfire effect work with me here) where have a rather nice Comic Shoppe in the area so I stroll up, ask the friendly proprietor at the Comic Cellar (I want to say I knew NOTHING about the website, this is a first time, but not a last because I do go there for comics all the time, and now I have to go edit the last blog to add the link in there) about the scott pilgrim books, he tells me he can order them(he doesn't keep them in stock) and as he looks it up mentions that he believe one was out of print. I figured it was probably the first one, had been a while and oldest one usually falls off. But no it was the actual book NAMED Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. Oh well he said it would take about a week or two to get them in (which was perfect because his birthday was in a little OVER 2 weeks at the time) dropped a small down payment(I usually like to pay the books off up front so I can just go pick them up, but hey even I hadn't planned previous to the brain blast of buying 5 books) and left the shop, now I told baby bro on the day I reserved them about the missing book. He was like I was "making him mad because now he wanted them" but I know him, the face drop would have been terrible when he noticed the world wasn't in there. So 2 weeks before you get them to get over the disappointment of not having the whole set was a very good idea.

(I may re edit this later and crop out some of the extra gobbledygook from each of the individual pictures) so here we go five books for my baby brother for his 22nd birthday. I rock, I'm awesome, he's been enjoying them ever since. Yes this still leaves my title of "Evil older Brother" intact it just also shows that the "Older Brother" part of my title is just as important to me as the evil. Total bill was about 60 bucks, and it was 60 bucks well spent. Sharing hobbies with a sibling or even having a similar if not the same hobby(I'm a big comics fan, he's a huge manga fan, I watch the sub titled anime's but I haven't really gotten into the reading the books stage of my anime viewership yet.I'm currently on Book 3 picture to the upper right hand side of this paragraph. It covers the whole Scott, Romana and Envy(or probably N.V. her name is actually Natalie V. Adams, I could look to see what the V stood for but it's just the first to letters that matter on this one) saga as well as scotts fight with todd Evil Ex number 3. Yeah yeah the whole He's a vegan and thus Awesome thing is in this book but it's more than just the bass battle, and him tricking him so that he would be De-Veganized.

 I like the extra details and the kind of silly stuff that Mr. O'Malley added to the world of scott pilgrim in the graphic novels. It makes scott even more lovelable, moochish(you can be a moocher but not moochish fine new word, I'm claiming it again) and shows how far Sex bob-omb came as a group. Now a little spoiler the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the world combines all the books into the Second GN's title so each book will be following the escapades to beat each evil Ex until the final Show down with Gideon Graves. Now it's good that they gave us the whole story and so well put together but it's also bad, because that means (for the moment and if they are strictly going by the comics) no sequel and I wouldn't mind seeing scott pilgrim again. the little short scott vs the animation was cool that they showed on CN was fun and a nice piece of backstory. It's most likely from book 4 the whole scott and kim backstory but I wouldn't mind another movie to see what happens to every body.

The fact that (at least up to this point) Roxie Richter wasn't actually in the comics but was created for the game and the movie is awesome. It's another pick on scott moment(hey it works with spidey and look how much dough marvel makes off the Wall crawler, by the way if you don't know how to look up MARVEL COMICS, or who MARVEL COMICS is, nor spiderman you need help, I may link to marvel on a later name drop, just night right now technically this is an Oni Press party so I am trying to give them their well deserved props) . While all in black and white (similar to Sin City) the inking and shading tell the story perfectly without all the extra colors.

I have said it before and will say it again, a good story will ALWAYS trump the flash most people throw at you. I mean some people get a hold of potentially profitable franchises or good characters and make a heart wrenching mess. I am so glad that Universal didn't and that they introduced me fully into the world of Scott Pilgrim, and I thank Bryan Lee O'Malley for creating such an Awkward and loveable character.

The present has been given(gave it to him monday), he has been reading them almost non stop and for good measure we have both rewatched the DVD a few times, some catchy tunes and great action in this movie. This is hollywood the way I like it, not worried about what you can believe and more worried about making sure they Immerse you in the world THEY are creating. The real world is what you go to the theater to escape, not to figure out "hmmm is it going to be believable" make a good story and nobody is worried about believable they are just worried about wow.

*while the pictures taken in this blog were taken by me the characters, artwork, and copyrights belong to Oni Press, Bryan Lee O'malley, and who ever else collaborated on these wonderful graphic novels. I am in no way trying to claim ownership and if asked I will gladly take the pictures down*