'Edge Of Tomorrow' and Time Manipulation

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of watching a movie that came out last summer, "Edge of Tomorrow". Despite how underrated it was, it was fantastic. Just goes to show you, you can't go wrong with Tom Cruise and Exo-Suits. 

Basically, in this movie (that takes place in the not-so-distant future) the Earth has been in a five-year war with an alien race. The main character, William Cage, is an officer in the US military...for media relations. This guy has seen like no combat. Ever. Which makes for some funny moments when he gets thrust into an Exo-Suit. 

Anyway, I'm not reviewing this, just giving a synopsis. After being killed within minutes on a suicide mission, Cage wakes up...that morning. Yeah. Freaky. 
By killing one of the aliens, Cage harnessed the innate ability to reset the day. Cool, right? Sounds crazy, but watch the movie and it'll make sense.

Forced to live out the same day in an endless loop, Cage hones his abilities whilst growing closer to winning the war. Let's just say it's pretty insane.

Insanity aside, this movie got me thinking: Wouldn't it be cool to have the ability to manipulate time? Of course, this prospect is outlandish, but a cool concept. However, I think that the idea of having total control is overrated. I would settle for the ability to see four seconds into the future. 

"I walk down the street with a jovial look in my eye. I quickly duck back, narrowly dodging the bullet aimed at my cranium. Something like that would normally be viewed as impossible; but I saw it coming four seconds ago."

See? That would be awesome. You wouldn't necessarily "see" the future, lest you be existing in two parallel universes, but it would be more of a sixth-sense. 

So yeah. There's something for your brain to chew on. I hope you have a great day!

Best,
-Ryan     

Christian Movies

Christian movies. We've all heard of them. We've even watched them. Some are better than others. In recent years, the christian movie kick has certainly been spurred. 'Noah', 'Son Of God', 'God's Not Dead', and 'Exodus' are just some of these.

I'll be outright with you; I have mixed feelings on them. I'm a life-long Roman-Catholic-Christian (say that three times fast), and the faith-based aspect of these movies is thrilling. It's pleasing to know that hollywood has been instigated to spread teaching about Christianity; but at what cost? 

In many of these movies (specifically the ones based off the Bible itself), you may find yourself saying on multiple occasion, "THAT wasn't in the book." I'm talking to you 'Noah'! We don't know for certain, but giant rock-monsters personifying fallen angels is a tad bit far-fetched.

Now, I know that the public doesn't like to have faith stuffed down their throats. Moderation is key. Sadly, Hollywood tends to view moderation as changing a few things in the Bible to be more entertaining. I won't lie to you, 'Noah' was a very entertaining movie to watch. Behind the mask of CGI, a little voice inside of me was saying, "Yep, that didn't happen."

As far as the movies that take place in modern times (God's Not Dead), I don't have much to say about them. Mainly because I haven't seen them. *shrugs shoulders* 

It may seem I only have flak to throw at these movies, but in reality I'm very excited to see them being produced. I give hollywood an A for effort for this. 

As an aspiring christian director, I wish not to compromise my morals if I make it into the film industry. Knowing an influx of christian movies are in demand comforts me with the prospect of working on a big-name, yet wholesome film.   

My Film Endeavors and Age of Ultron

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I know that I promised I would post weekly on Thursdays. One day late is better than not posting at all I suppose. 

Quite frankly, I had a very busy week and didn't have time to think of a solid topic involving movies. In lieu of this, I shall elaborate on my current film endeavors.

Basically, when I was twelve, my love of film was introduced through stop-motion animation. This is actually a pretty common way in which film makers are introduced to the industry. It's just recently that I've shifted gears to live-action filming.

I intend to spring-board my way into live-action filming by making short sketch films. You are familiar with this genre if you have seen a Julian Smith or Rhett and Link video. These are basically short comedy sketches that are random in nature and witty in presentation. Upon my release of these I shall link to my youtube. 

My passion for filming has stemmed completely from my love of story-telling. Ever since I was young I've been a guy who's always up for a long joke or a funny story. Film is just an elaborate way of presenting these stories. 

I aspire to climb the ladder of media creation until I earn a place commercially.

Yay. This concludes my heart-touching post that outlines my dreams and hobby. On to the interesting stuff.

Who's excited for Age of Ultron? I know this isn't new news. Everyone knows it's coming out, but as its release date draws closer, I'm starting to get pretty exited. What I'm most excited for is the introduction of new characters.

My hope for this is that Marvel gives enough back-story and screen-time for each of these characters. Give credit where credit is due, eh? 

Anyway, here's the trailer for all of you who live under a rock. 

      

'Big Hero 6' Review

                                                                                     

                                               

Today I will be reviewing one of Disney's newest animated releases, "Big Hero 6". Let me start off by saying that it was nothing short of fantastic.

I'll be honest; I didn't know what to expect going into this. "What? Disney made an animated movie based off a Marvel comic that appeared in the 90's?" I was slightly skeptical, to say the least. 

     

My skepticism was quickly whisked away as soon as the opening scene came into view. I shan't elaborate for the sake of keeping this review relatively spoiler-free, but let's just say this movie went with the "jump into the action!" approach, and it payed off. 

The grandiose action movie this is painted to be is quite deceiving. Behind all the glitz and glamour of the stupendous fight scenes and great animation, lies a cinematic experience that's full of heart. 

This movie, at its core, has something most animated movies don't: heart. What I mean by this is that this movie has something underlying and driving throughout. Most animated movies turn into "Let's do this just because!" endeavors. Big Hero 6, on the other hand, has something deeper. 

Big Hero 6 is about Hiro Hamada, a thirteen/fourteen year old boy who lives in the fictional city of San-Fransokyo. He's a technical genius who doesn't apply his talents. His older brother, Tadashi, introduces him to the world of college where Hiro can hone his talents in a resourceful way. In a twist of events *SPOILER ALERT* Tadashi is killed, leaving Hiro in a state of depression.

What's one of the best ways to cope with loss? Why, a huggable robot of course! Enter, Baymax: Tadashi's last creation. The relationship between Hiro and Baymax can be described as rebuilding. Baymax's delightfully oblivious self gives the movie a certain sense of wonder.

Hiro's loss also brings into play another point. In this movie we see one of the most commonly used forms of man vs. self conflict: grieving. I can give you a list of movies that have dealt with this in such a way that almost make me cry, but I won't. You can take heart in the fact that Big Hero 6 is on said list. 

Among the deeper things, Big Hero 6 has some great things going for it in the way of the movie itself. I found that the pacing of everything was great, not too rushed but not begrudgingly slow. Both of which are common problems in animated movies (heck, any movie involving superheroes!). 

Big Hero 6 is hilarious. I feel the need to be out-right with that. It's a funny movie. It may be a "kids movie", but I'm immature, so I found it to be quite laughable.

As for the soundtrack of this movie, I'll be honest, I didn't notice it because I was so engrossed in the film itself. That being said, I opened up Spotify and listened to the soundtrack by itself afterwards. It's good. 
Each song does a neat job of encompassing its respective scene. It's nothing amazing like the Lord of The Rings soundtrack, but it's definitely no ho-hum tune, either.

Okay, so every movie has its bad points, right? Although this movie has some strong things going for it, it has its flaws, however small. 

One of the big things that bugged me was how predictable it is in parts. Superhero movies (especially ones that involve a team of supers) tend to have a very clear-cut routine: origins involving a traumatic experience > things start to turn up > villain is introduced and defeats the hero/es > recuperate and conquer. And sadly, Big Hero 6 falls into this, leaving it slightly predictable.   

In tandem with the predictability is that some parts seemed forced, "Our parents died when I was three, remember?". 
Really? I think he would remember that... I understand that re-writing a script to please every little detail is unrealistic, but I think they could have done a better job with covering up that obviousness. 

Last and least of my quirks with this film is that some characters seem underdeveloped. This isn't a huge issue, barely noticeable, actually. It just seemed that some characters were more developed than others, and vice-versa. 

Overall, I think Big Hero 6 was an absolutely fantastic movie despite it's flaws. It's academy award was well-earned and I never stopped smiling whilst watching. I highly recommend this movie. It has enough wit and action to keep an adult enthralled, and good pacing and lovable characters for children. 
My final score for this movie is: 90/100 --- A

                  

Of Topics and Revitalization

So I'm back. Back with a vengeance. Where that vengeance is directed, I know not. It doesn't matter, however. A vengeance can be channeled to something nice, such as re-booting a blog. That's right, I'm back baby. This time, I'm more organized. 

     What I plan to do with this blog is somewhat topical now. Posts will frequently include topics that are attune to my interests. If you honestly don't know those by now, that's okay. I'll just tell. This blog will include (but not be limited to): 
-Movies/Film (All the new things concerning the industry, including my own endeavors.)
-Writing (As you know I have a special place in my heart for writing, so expect it to be a common theme.)
-Creative Expedites (Anything that has to do with the arts or anything creative, I'm your guy.)
-Geeky Indulgences (Can be a subset of the above topics.)

     As well as the new and improved topic design, I'll try to be vigilant with my posting. At least once-a-week, if not more.

I apologize about the petite size of this post, but I felt inclined to give you guys a heads up. Keep your head down and horn up. (No, that doesn't quite fit) 

The Hobbies of old

     Hi person. How are you today? I'm doing OK. I've had a very eventful time lately. I shall tell you about it in one large run on sentence that just keeps going and going. So as you know I have lots of hobbies that range to reading to cinematography and you see lately I've decided to do some cool stuff I'm going to make a live action movie and write a book I also got my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend and that wasn't fun.
Whew. I hope you enjoyed that.

You probably noticed how I stated I shall be taking on the endeavor of making a movie. I've always loved the film industry, and this is my first time breaking into it. Lots of stuffs hasd to be donezoed. It's quite the undertaking because it's not just me making it. I have a total of about six people helping me. That's alot when it comes to no budget stuff.

Alas, you may have also noticed that I want to write a book. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Everybody wants to write a book. I want to write one, but finding the time to do it is the issue. I have school, a job, a movie to make, a blog to write, a social life to live, and an underground soda company to run. Wait what? Soda company. Fah. Like that's legit! Anyway, life is busy and writing a book doesn't fit in. I wish I could this month seeing it's national novel writing month. Sigh. I even have an idea and everything. Relaying the idea here would be a bit time consuming, so I'm not going to. Sorry to disappoint. However, if you are writing a book this month, I wish to thee the best of luck. Don't give up! Drink some juice! Run a mile! Do what it takes to stay motivated!

Yeah. I got my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend. It sucked. It still does suck because I'm sore. I can deal with the pain, I can deal with the swelling, but I can't deal with the not-being-able-to-eat-awesome-food thing. Yeah, watching someone eat an Oreo right in front of you is kinda hard to do when you can't partake. Yeah life.
Hope you enjoyed the post. Live long and prosper.

Hard to Miss

     It's very hard to miss the face-lift that my blog has undergone. If you don't notice any difference you may be suffering from one or more of these slight head traumas: amnesia, color blindness, restless leg syndrome, or new readeritis. The last one is probably the most probable. But yes, I totally overhauled the blog. I shall explain.

First off, I like how it feels. It seems for cozy, and reader friendly. It's the kind of setting that makes you want to curl up with a cup o' joe and continue to scroll down. Get what I mean? Yeah, it's okay if you don't.

My next reason is because it's more reader friendly. There are less distractions than before, and the text area is bigger, making it more readable.

My last reason is because of my life. That's confusing, but allow me to explain myself. I haven't had much time lately to write posts, but I have had time, however, to write my stories. Sorry blog, stories trump you. As you know, I like to post my stories here. To do that, I need to write them. This doesn't mean I won't post things like this where I go off on a humorous rant, it just means I'll have less of them.

Anywhos, that's the gist of it. I have a pretty good story in the works right now, and I hope to post it soon. So I'll be seeing you my friends! Keep your head up and learn to talk the walk!

Short Stories and Diversity

     Hello all. Yes. I'm here. You probably thought I'd gone missing or something horrible like that. I assure, I am not missing. Atleast, I think I'm not. Is anyone missing me? Oh well. Alas, I have returned to the world of binary, spam, cat videos, and stalkers. AKA: The Internet. Of course, I just described it in the most negative way possible. Sorry cat people. The positive way to describe it would be: The Albino Rhino. *badummm tssssss* That was a joke... Oh? You thought I was serious? Well I was.

     I've been inactive for a while for a number of reasons. I was taking a vacation for while. My last post was actually written whilst on vacation. And back-to-school started. Combined with other things, life's been a tornado of sorts. Finding time to post on a blog is rather incomprehensible. But because I like (not love, that would be weird) all you readers out there. I'm writing this right now, for you, and myself. I do enjoy writing. Very much so. Speaking of which, this is a segway!

     Yeah, so I always have ideas for stories goin' around in my head. My big issue is that I sit down and write for like three weeks, then I stop. The half-written story sits in a document, gathering dust. Or whatever a computer's equivalent to dust is. In lieu of this, I'm going to take a new approach. Of course, I'll still write my huge stories, but in addition, I'm going to write many short stories.

    You know, the kinds of stories that you write for a few days, and they're actually pretty good. What makes them good is that when you're writing a short story, you can leave many questions unanswered. Much like in my other stories posted here on this blog. Confusion and head-scrathin' make a recipe for success in short stories. Because of this, many short stories are diverse in nature. Speaking of which, this is another SEGWAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

    You're most likely confused as to the second half of the title of this post. I understand that. "Diversity" could be mean a variety of things. I shall explain. Perhaps the most diverse thing on the planet earth, even more so than people, are keychains. Haven't you ever thought of that? Have you ever seen two identical keychains? There are so many factors that make each diverse. Key size/type, accessories, lanyards/rings etc. The list goes on.

     I can say *almost* totally confidently, you will never find two keychains that are alike. Or in math terms, two keychains that are congruent.

Game Philosophy

     The game of life. We've all played. And if you have, then you'll agree with me on something. It is not an accurate representation. Now, it doesn't take that much life experience to get this. Even a twelve-year-old child could tell you that. Real life isn't a board with individual spaces that represent our different positions in life. If you tried to make a board game that was realistic to real life, the board would look more like a picasso painting. You start wherever, and you end whenever.

     In lieu of this, I've devised a not so difficult philosophy about life in general. You can view this in two ways, as a video game or as a regular ol' game. I will go through both. Life's a big game: a video game, let's start with that. In a video game you spawn, in life's case, you're born into the world. Video games all have training sessions and tutorials that guide you through your first steps. In real life this would be known as your childhood. Mistakes you make in your tutorial sessions don't have that many real consequences, you simply get back up and try again. As you grow older you are given more slack until you have no tether. You can do whatever, within reason that is. Life ends when your game is over, or when you make a stupid decision. So you see, life's complicated, but not really. Everything we do is simply leading to where we're all going. It depends on your beliefs where you think you're going, but I sure know where I want to go...

     Anyway, at this point I would explain the board-game portion of life, but the video-game sections seems to have wrapped it up pretty well. So I won't. Since this has shaped up to be a pretty short post, I want to do something that I've been meaning to do for a while now. Below are various links leading to other blogs that I follow. I know the administrators of each one personally, so you may not find them as entertaining as I do, but none-the-less. I've been meaning to do it for a while, so here it is.

Purple Effervescence
http://purpleeffervescence.blogspot.com/
As stated, I know this young woman personally, and I recommend reading it.

Concepts and Pistachios
http://conceptsandpistachios.wordpress.com/
This was the blog that inspired this one. I highly recommend reading it as well. The administrator of this blog is one of the few people I know that can challenge me in the art of raw random.

Anything Goes
http://therobertrichter.blogspot.com/
I also know the guy that runs this blog. Sensing a trend? Check it out!  

Da stresses be much

     Sup ya'll? Been a while since I've posted. As you can guess, things have been slightly stressful for me lately. Actually, this summer has been the busiest one yet. It's been riddled with various different activities and such that have made it seem like it's simply blown right by. Yeah girl, this summer has seemed to just float on by.

     Things just recently, however, have been pretty stressful. If you've read this blog for any length of time you know I'm a self proclaimed: beat-boxer, writer, filmmaker, and ninja. These different passions have overlapped alot recently. One of them is not true, you have the responsibility of picking said false claim...

    Anyway, yes. These different hobbies have come together and intersected at this moment in time. In the middle of beat-box riffs, whilst a film is being animated, while a story is in the works of being written. As much as I'd love to shoot a movie, write, and beat-box at the same time, that just can't happen. I've also had many various real-life important things going on to be the icing on the cake.

...We interrupt this boring melancholy vent fest for something not boring...

Ok, so I just realized that this entire post up to this point has been nothing but a boring rant. Emphasis on boring... You most likely have decided to read this blog because you think some things I post are semi-entertaining. On with the entertaining! Wikipedia. Wikipedia is funny.

    We've all had a teacher tell us not to use the famed website for research. Why not? OK, teachers, I totally understand how wikipedia is unreliable and sometimes false. But shouldn't that be up to the student if they want to risk their grade? I think that should be part of the grading of the project. Credibility judging: A+ or F-.

    Unfortunately, wikipedia is somewhat a "luck of the draw". Sometimes you find some interesting facts and resources, other times you learn that pumpkins are purple and smell like strawberries.