Summer Wrap-Up: Movies, Inglourious Movies!

Hey gang, it's the last blog of the Summer. Why is it that such an awesome season is only three months long? It only makes Fall look stupid. Fall needs to suffer a fate worse than death (by which I mean it should have to spend an eternity in Fall, the worst season there is.) Anyway, like my last blog I will be talking about my favorite movies on the Summer, as well as the ones I didn't like. Let's get to it with the countdown of the best movies.

Best Movies of the Summer:
5. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - At first, I was annoyed that it had taken the folks across the pond so long to put this one out I didn't want to see this one. But Harry returned in full force. Awesome visuals and a great connection with the characters we've all come to know and love really made this the best Potter film yet. Only thing I didn't like was the lack of Voldemort memories and the fact the makers of the film were afraid to go against Twilight (hence it's six month delay).

4. Star Trek - Seriously, I am not a Trekkie. I know the basic backstory and the characters, but I couldn't tell you what Kirk did in episode 47 against some horribly designed aliens. Fortunately, this film can easily bring anyone up to speed on voyages of the Starship Enterprise while still creating an epic adventure all its own. The action has been upped, the characters are believable and the lines that made the classic TV show famous are said without the feeling of "OMG he just said that line". Hats off to J.J. Abrams, or should I say "Live long and Prosper"? No, I shouldn't...

3. Inglourious Basterds - Saw this one this afternoon, actually. Even so, it's living proof that Quentin Tarantino has still got it. In all seriousness, this may be the coolest movie I've ever seen (not the best but still oozes badassery). Brad Pitt is phenomenal, funny and *insert synonym for "cool" here. Think of it as a Spaghetti Western meets Casablanca; everything pops off the screen. Action is intense, dialogue is sophisticated, and the plot (in which the ending is one of the greatest and most American things I have ever seen, /salute) is wrapped in "I don't give a fuck how WWII actually went down". Though a little too long, overall, one of the best action films to date.

2. District 9 - A friend and I went to see Terminator Salvation when the trailer for this film emerged. All he and I needed to see was "Peter Jackson presents" and we were sold. The film is, quite frankly, not only one of the best movies of this year, but also one of the best sci-fi films of all time. The CGI is very present, but it's not overdone so it creates a sense of realism to the aliens (spoiler: there are aliens). Though filmed like "The Blair Witch Project" for the first part of the film, it actually differs quite a bit from what I was expecting (cuz "The BWP" sucked ass). Really cool action and a plot of epic proportions. Go see it, now.

1. Up - Yes, I know it's an animated film. But don't you dare say that this is a regular "Disney" affair for little children. This is Pixar doing what Pixar does best. Going in, I thought how this would compare to Wall-E; leaving I knew it was in a category all it's own. Not only is this one of the most beautiful animated films ever, it's story and characters make it one of the best movies of all time. It's physical comedy and comical allusions (i.e., dogs playing poker) make it hilarious for everyone, not just little kids. It's the perfect example of why you don't need goofy looking animals with celebrity voices to make a succesful and timeless story (fingers pointed at you, Dreamworks).

Worst Movie of the Summer:
Transformers 2 - Epic fail. A festoring cold sore in cinema history. AIDS in movie form. Whatever you want to call it, it was TERRIBLE. The first Transformers had a pretty quirky plot that was explained fairly well. Rather than going the route of most sequels by having no plot at all, this movie's plot spits in your face and tells you to like it. Somehow or other, Michael Bay took everything great about the first one (character development, focused and cool-looking action, semi-cohesive story) and replaced it with sex jokes, dialogue-less transformers, and robot testicles. The action is big but many scenes had action that didn't affect anything and was purely aesthetic. Megan Fox became a mindless drone with no intelligent lines instead of the goddess of hot that she is. The most frustrating parts: a random teleportation from Washington D.C. to Egypt and Shia LaBeouf going to robot heaven. The inverse Dark Knight.

Movie that actually didn't suck:
G.I. Joe - What appeared to be a horrible looking movie actually turned into a fun, action packed revamp of those dolls that pedophiles played with when they were seven. The action is solid, especially when Snake Eyes gets on-screen. Accelerator suits were a little much, but it was still a great salute to the old animated series of yore. A better budget and the return of Sienna Miller smugglin' hams and Stephen Sommers will finally have a new franchise.

Best Trailer:
The Last Airbender - I am a big fan of the Nickelodeon show and I can't wait to see what M. Night Shyamalan does with this. It already looks to have a solid cast (a martial arts expert as Aang, Shaun Toub of Iron Man fame as Uncle Iroh and the standout of Dev Petal as Prince Zuko). Here's hoping it has the success of The Sixth Sense rather than the... ahem... of The Happening.

Been a good summer overall and I am very excited to keep blogging. It really has become fun to just vent my views on stuff and I hope that I can continue to talk about the things that matter to me. For now, this is Apple Juice Jones, signing off...

Summer Wrap-Up: Games, Glorious Games!

So for part one of my two part Summer Wrap-Up blog (yes you may cry because summer is coming to an end) is going to be about the video games and tidbits that have me excited for the rest of this year and the next. First, a very brief opinion of E3, then on to an awards ceremony of games that interest me with a brief description for each. Let the Rant commence!

E3: The big winner: Microsoft. No dumb graphs or charts. Just big announcements, some expected, others not. Project Natal definetly turned some heads thanks in part to the bottom of an avatar's shoe and a weird kid named Milo. Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 were shockers, as was the addition of Twitter and Facebook to Xbox Live. The biggest announcements by far were both Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Halo: Reach. In other conferences, Sony actually did a great job of putting out games that enticed gamers to try out the console (albeit the lack of a price drop would have been appreciated). Nintendo did a lackluster job of bringing hardcore games to their system (Mario is not enough and only Metroid impressed). EA and Ubisoft failed miserably. Too much about tween girls and James Cameron.

Games I want to buy:
Batman: Arkham Asylum - Play the demo. You will be blown away.
Halo 3: ODST - I was skeptical about this at first, but new gameplay, Firefight, a multiplayer disc and a beta invite to Reach is too good to pass up. Check it out.
Brutal Legend - Waiting for the demo, but it looks fantastic already.
Modern Warfare 2 - A sequel to one of the best FPS of all time. Nuff said.
Assassin's Creed 2 - A visionary sequel with a bunch of new elements to eliminate the repetition.
Mass Effect 2 - You should already know why I want this game...
Dante's Inferno - God of War comes to Xbox.
Brink - Think Mirror's Edge meets Battlefront.

Games that would entice me to buy a PS3 Slim:
The Last Guardian - Stunning.
Uncharted 2 - Badassery.
God of War 3 - Badassery cont.
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Yes it's old but amazing.
Fat Princess - Flamio Hotman!

Games that need to go die in a fire:
Games for tween girls - just why?
Music Games - Cuz every house needs 20 crappy plastic peripherals that do the same thing.
Hannah Montana - Cuz it garnered way too much adult male applause at the Sony Conference...
Motion Capture Games - Ultimately, still a mere concept that is no where near being cool or fun. The fact that Nintendo is now failing in sales (down 60%) shows that folks just aren't interested at moving around their living room like a goon. New ideas should be in software, not hardware.

Stay tuned for my follow-up to this blog: the best and worst movies of the Summer. Please comment on my opinion and tell me what you think! Ciao bella.

P.S. about Fable 3: So Fable 2 was easily the biggest "hit and miss" game I've played since Duck Hunter on the SNES (get it? huh? huh? DO YA?!?!?!?). While some parts really pulled at the heartstrings, i.e., my dog crying when I left for the spire and the death of my dog, others really felt hollow, i.e., Lucien killing my sister (aka annoying bitch), really feeling like this is an epic adventure, and the non-existent boss fight at the end. Combat was fun until you became too powerful and they ran out of enemies to throw in there. DLC was also frustrating at times. Now Fable 3 has been announced, but it has some changes that look to remedy some (if not all) of my complaints. Click here to see what I'm talking about.

Call of Duty: A Modern World at War

So with all the recent game delays and the many popular games set for this year being pushed back into the next, it seems that only one franchise may deliver on its original release date: Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Title is subject to change). Seeing as how this is the sequel to one of the best games of all time, it's poised to be one of the best-selling games this year. However, it also has the capacity to fail in certain areas, namely the multiplayer. This is just some of my opinions in what both Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War succeeded and failed to do in their games and therefore what should be in the next chapter in the COD franchise.

1.Ranking System First of all, I hope that Infinity Ward will keep the ranking system for the first Modern Warfare. It was revolutionary and addicting to gamers who wanted to level up quickly and feel good doing it. The system made it so that even if you didn't win a match, you could have easily made up for it by getting kills, assisting teamates, completing objectives, and accomplishing challenges. Overall, one of the best multiplayer systems to date. My only suggestions are a few tweeks to the system.

2.Prestige I would suggest that more rewards are given for going Prestige. In COD4, players could get golden weapons and a new insignia each time they went to the next level of Prestige. Treyarch expanded on this idea by allowing players to get additional custom class slots, but even then, its really not enough for someone who has given up all their weapons and started over again. Special perks and weapons only available through Prestige will really entice all players to try it out.

3.Create-a-class Another unique triumph of COD4, the create-a-class system kept players interested in bettering themselves by equipping new perks and weapons. I feel that IW should continue this trend, with a few boundaries. For one, if new perks are added (which Treyarch did in WaW) or old perks are tweeked, there should always be a perk that counteracts that perk in some way. A good example is one in WaW: Matyrdom (dropping a live grenade upon dying) is counteracted by Toss Back, which resets the fuse of a live grenade. Another suggestion is being able to change your class during a match, so players can more effectively strategize against others. Finally, players should be able to customize what they look like as well. Unlocking new gear and clothing is just as addicting as unlocking weapons.

4.Weapons Needless to say this has a category all its own. Not much to say here though, IW and Teyarch have done a solid job on putting weapons in, it's just the application that isn't great. Many times players have looked upon their killcams to see an entire clip shot at them and only one shot connecting. Even more frustrating is shooting a few precise shots at an enemy and not killing the target. This rewards luck, not skill and should be addressed. In addition, killstreak rewards could use some work. IW's rewards were solid and believable, but Treyarch simply failed. Artillery would shake the camera too much and dogs (which could be killed very easily in COD4) can kill you in two shots on regular fights (one shot on Hardcore). IW has promised more rewards this time, they should just be careful in how they apply them.

5.Vehicles No. Simply, no. When the trailer and demo of MW2 revealed using snowmobiles in single-player, many speculated that you could use vehicles in multiplayer. I'm not even sorry in saying that this is a stupid idea. In World at War, tanks were EXTREMELY overpowered. Even though there were many perks you could use to take them down, it would always take multiple people just to kill one person. Not to mention that one could never get close enough to kill them without being shot by a different player or nuked by one shot of the tank's barrel. Snowmobiles, while not at strong as a tank, are still too fast to be put in a game like COD. Overpowered vehicles didn't get players into Modern Warfare, using skill and strategy did. If vehicles are included in MW2, they must be able to be destroyed with relative ease.

I look with optimism on the release of this new game, as the multiplayer footage Infinity Ward has shown off shows a deep understanding of the frustrations that their community has in the game and what the developer has done to fix it. To see what I'm talking about click this link.

Twitter: For the Birds...

So unless you've been living under a rock, in a cave, or on Mars (and none of these places have internet connection) then you've probably heard about a little thing called Twitter. It's a social networking site that appears to have become the top dog among other sites such as Myspace and Facebook. However, I have been hearing so much about it now more than ever that I have to offer my two cents.

First, let me just say that I consider Twitter with mixed feelings. For one, the creators are geniuses. A site where you just tell people what you're doing at any given moment? A concept so stupidly simple, its no wonder it's become an international phenomenon. It's drawn the attention of politicians, celebrities, and the media itself. EVERYONE does it. But that's where my problems surface. As people who are naturally prone to ignoring other people unless they are at least our aquaintances, isn't it a little weird that we're sharing our schedule with the entire world? Recently, the idea of Twitter becoming a tv channel was thrown up in the air. The hordes of the rich and famous were quick to shoot down this bird (pun sorta intended). Many felt that it would be an invasion of privacy. And that's where my face blew up.

Twitter is nothing more that an open invitation for anyone to see what any given person is doing any time that person "tweets/twitters" it. Now I hope that people don't write every single aspect of their life down, but even things that you're willing to share let people know where you are and what you're doing. Paint it whatever color you like, but that is still a willing invitation to privacy. Not to mention the drain it creates on our society as a whole. Do we really need to know that Lance Armstrong watched "Gran Torino" on a plane to Aspen? Or that Ashton Kutcher has over 1 million people following his seemingly non-existent life as an actor? The most logical answer is no, but the masses say otherwise.

Now, I'm not saying Twitter is all bad. In fact, in some circumstances it can actually be used very effectively. Felicia Day (of the hit web series The Guild) has created a huge following in which she updates fans on the progress of the show and lets them know how her work on it (as actor, writer and producer) is going. Twitter can also be used to give updates to families, businesses and friends. But this is only if it is used in small increments. Letting your family know how a surgery went or your co-workers how a meeting went is much more effective than having to call them all or write an e-mail to them. If the info is vital, then people will pay attention; if not, then they'll let it slip right on through.

Bottom line: We need to be much more temperate on this baby-blue giant of social networking. By letting people know about the most insignificant aspects of our lives, we begin to lose our sense of privacy and our sense of what's vital for others to know. However, we need to learn how to use this outlet usefully so that we can start seeing Twitter as more of a help than a hindrance.

P.S. Since Twitter is staying around for a while, the creator need to create a definitive verb for writing on it. Tweet or Twitter? Or something else? All readers of this blog should vote in the comments section.