Category: Media

Posted on

Review: Kong: Skull Island

Best non-Star Wars movie I’ve seen in a few years.  Though except for Rogue One, it’s probably the best movie I’ve seen in quite a while, which surprised me.

As I said elsewhere, I was in tears during the fight scenes.  They were beautiful to watch.

If anything, this movie reminded me why I love giant monster movies, and in this case, Kong.

I remember seeing the original 1933 movie when I was little, and while it was scary, I was more scared when the biplanes attacked Kong.

In King Kong vs. Godzilla, I recall how upset I was at Kong when he beat Godzilla, but later realized that Godzilla was the villain in that movie.

I remember my aunt bringing us to see the 1976 film at the old Serramonte 6 theatre (now a BevMo) and how annoyed I was that Kong wasn’t as big as he was in the movie posters.

And then the poster idea was copied…

Heh.  But I digress.

Then came the Peter Jackson film, which was actually 2 films in one: Kong on Skull Island and Kong in New York.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched it more than once, not because I didn’t like it, but because it’s such a long movie.

Except for the last one, I think I’ve seen the others many times.

Oh, and then there’s this one…

I may have seen this one… once?

Anyways, Kong: Skull Island is a good movie, with a fantastic cast.  I thought I’d be annoyed with John C. Reilly, but I wasn’t, and even Samuel L. Jackson didn’t phone in his performance.

Corey Hawkins is much better in this than he is in 24: Legacy.

Also, it’s very weird to see Nick Fury, Loki, and Captain Marvel all on screen together in a non-Marvel film.

I look forward to what comes next from Legendary and their kaiju/monster movies.

Posted on

Fantastic Beasts

I watched it this morning and really liked it.  I kinda regret not seeing it on the big screen.

I grew bored with the Harry Potter movie franchise after Goblet of Fire.  I’m not sure why, exactly, and splitting the last book into two movies didn’t help to change how I felt.  I don’t think I saw the last 3-4 in the theatre.

Even though the movie takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter, the change in time period helped it become more appealing to me.

Aside from the cast, who I either loved or didn’t know they were in it (Ezra Miller!  Jon Voight!) my favorite part of the movie were, of course, the beasts.

I went and ordered this:

Niffler POP! Vinyl figure *squeee*

And this as well:

Newt Scamander’s wand

I’ve never wanted a prop wand from any of the characters in the Harry Potter movies (though I did almost pick up Snape’s a while back), but for some reason, I wanted this one.

Overall, I thought it  was an entertaining movie, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.  I just hope I don’t grow tired of them as I did with the original Potter films.

Posted on

Headphones

I’ve been an $10-$20 earbud guy forever, with a couple of pairs of wired over-the-ear headphones attached to my desktop and laptop at home.

I started looking into noise-cancelling headphones, mainly for the level of noise at times at work.  At the recommendation of my co-worker, I picked this up.

Bose Quietcomfort 35 wireless noise-cancelling headphones

I tried them at Best Buy, along with a couple of Beats by Dre models, and this one blocked out ambient noise better than the others did, just as my co-worker said they did.

This is definitely the priciest audio accessory that I’ve ever bought, next to my iPod.

I’ve been wearing them right now for about 30 minutes, and I really like them.  They’re good for audio books, too.

Posted on

The 50s

March 9th, 1967: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘The Devil in the Dark’.

Dispatched to the mining colony on Janus VI, the Enterprise is tasked to investigate rumors of a strange, subterranean creature responsible for destruction of equipment and the deaths of fifty miners. Kirk and Spock discover a silicon-based life form, a Horta, which lives in the surrounding rock. After Kirk and his Vulcan first officer find the strange creature, Spock performs a mind meld, discovering the reason behind the Horta’s attacks.

This episode holds a special place in my memories because it was the first Star Trek fotonovel that I bought, which means it was one of the first books that I ever bought on my own, with my allowance.  I think I got it from Gemco.

It was a great episode, with a really cool monster, the Horta.

I still have an unopened Spock action figure that I picked up last year after that Star Trek concert.  Perhaps I should open it.

Posted on

LOGAN

It was okay.

FOX still can’t create anything that compares to even the Netflix Marvel stuff.  Seriously.

It had some cool moments, but as a whole it was just kinda ‘meh’.

That’s really all I can say.

Posted on

Sunday

Daytona 500: I watched.  I wasn’t too impressed with the new 3-stage format.  I’m  somewhat suspicious that the winning car is sponsored by the new series sponsor, Monster Energy.  It was Chase Elliott’s race until he seemed to run out of fuel.

Up next is the Oscars.