Thoughts on the Thor SDCC footage

First, the video. Here. (Many thanks to i09 for this.)

-Thor kicking ass and taking names WITHOUT Mjolnir. Awesome. You get the sense that he really is a mighty warrior.

-Agent Coulson getting more screen time? Clark Gregg is slowly turning into the most recognized "That guy!" actor in geekdom. Wonder when he's going to show up in the comicbooks?

-At the :51 mark, we get a good headshot of Thor. Much like RDJ with Tony Stark, Hemsworth totally looks the part.

-Asgard looks incredible. Truly the home of the gods. (Where's the Rainbow Bridge though?)

-Anthony Hopkins as Odin. Nothing negative to say about that.

-First look at the other Asgardians at the 1:37 mark. Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), who does not seem to have his trademark belly, Fandral the (really) Dashing Joshua Dallas), Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano). The guys are known as the Warriors Three and Sif is Thor's special friend. I'm excited for their role in the movie as Thor's posse.

-Hmm, those things they're fighting look like Dark Elves. Wonder if one of them will inappropriately unleash the Elvish Tickler.

-Thor and Odin engaged in a shouting match with Loki caught in the middle. This really is a story about a father and his sons after all.

-Rene Russo(!) is playing possibly Thor's mama.

-Loki doesn't look that mischievous (yet).

-Again, where's the Rainbow Bridge?

-Great line. "Oh no, this is Earth isn't it?" Glad that we're not going with the amnesia subplot.

-Man Thor is RIPPED.

-Despite playing an actual character in the comics (Jane Foster), it looks like Natalie Portman is our exposition device.

-3:23 Power Walk, Asgardian Gods style.

-No idea what that box was. Cosmic Cube? Casket of Ancient Winters? And that green-skinned creature too. Looked like one of the aliens from Doctor Who, "The End of Time." Could it be a Skrull??

-Why hello, Natalie Portman.

-Most likely, the Warriors Three and Lady Sif come to Midgard (what Asgardians call Earth) and ally themselves with Thor after Loki inherits the throne.

-Hopefully the Thor-Loki showdown is an epic, god-on-god, battle of the Odinsons showdown and not really bad cosplay.

-The Destroyer armor looks incredible. Best line of the whole trailer goes to unnamed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, "Is that one of Stark's?" And man, Coulson's got some balls trying to read the Destroyer its rights.


My immediate reaction to this? Fuck and Yeah. Based on this 5-minute teaser, the movie is going to kick so much ass. Asgard really looks well done, the costumes don't look as unpolished as they did in those pictures they released a while back and Hemsworth seems born to play Thor. So far, Marvel has done a good job finding the leads for their movies ('cept for Norton apparently) and I just hope this means Chris Evans will do a good job as Cap. They look to cover a lot of ground in this one movie so hopefully they can fit it all in. It seems to start in Asgard then goes to Midgard then back to Asgard but I'm confident that director Kenneth Branagh can pace this well and give each moment room to breathe. Hopefully the other characters get to shine in this as well, especially the other Asgardians (Idris Elba as Heimdall!!!) and even if they don't get a lot of screen time, hopefully they can duplicate what they did with Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and give them individual bad ass moments.

I'm really, really looking forward to this. Honestly, I'm expecting both this and Captain America to be better than the Iron Man films because they aren't your traditional superhero stories. Next year can't come soon enough. I wish it were 2011 already.

Excelsior!

The Greatest Day Ever (So Far)

Why is today the greatest day ever?

1.) On the third day of San Diego Comic-Con 2010, Marvel Studios held their panel in Hall H, highlighting the upcoming Thor, Captain America and Avengers movies. From that alone, any comicbook fan of the past sixty years will find much to talk about because THEY ARE MAKING MOVIES OF THREE OF MARVEL's BIGGEST PROPERTIES. HOLY SHIT.

2.) Though I haven't seen the actual teaser footage, from the recaps, I can safely say my excitement for these movies couldn't get any higher. When the words COSMIC CUBE are involved, you know shit's gonna get real.

3.) Correction, apparently, at the end of the panel, they decided to induce a mass geekgasm as they brought together the principle cast of The Avengers, along with their director. Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Sam Jackson, Robert Downey, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Joss Whedon (among others) all appeared together for the first time. Evans missed his chance to basically destroy the minds of every single fanboy there by shouting Avengers Assemble! but it was enough to see all of them on stage.

4.) RDJ basically dissed Inception. I am all for that.

5.) When I finally get to see The Avengers, that will be the greatest day ever. Peace.

Terrified

Walking home from the Petron building along Buendia reminded me of all those times I'd be walking along Katipunan to get Wok Dis Way or Webtown or McDo or Chili Willy's or Kourtyard or KFC or Burgundy or Rustans or Mind Movers or what have you.

Sorry. Napapa-reminisce. It's been a while. I kinda miss Katipunan you know?

Actually, that is the point of this particular post. I really friggin' miss Katipunan no matter how noisy, dirty or hot it could get. (And more often than not, it was worse.)

I only ever found myself along Katipunan in college because before that, students were confined to the grade school and high school. And after school, I'd go home immediately because I rode the school bus or, for a few years, remain in school because of basketball practice. In college, that all changed. My friends and I would go out to eat in one of the student-friendly restaurants or play in one of the gaming shops. Other people will tell you that I forgot about "drinking," but that's only because I don't drink.

(I know, shocking.)

Anyway, so walking along Jupiter kinda reminded me of those good times. The freedom and spontaneity of it all, like, your own personal country, separate from your life at home where you had a different set of rules and privileges. No parents or teachers to reprimand you and you could basically do anything you want.

College was great. Now it's time to move on. The most important part of this post shouldn't be the "missing" part but the fact that I went to the Petron building along Buendia ave. I had my P&G test today. And I passed. And I am one step closer to landing a job. Huzzah.

I am not excited, I am not thrilled but the same time I am not sad that I passed. I'm still stuck in the past and I realize this is bad because the future is where I need to be. Getting a job is the first step into my future and it's scary and daunting and terrifying but it is necessary, absolutely necessary to growing up.

The Perils of Good Teeth

Actually, the joke may be on me and the title does not mean what I think it means, but I am very smart (and absolutely look it) and the title works and I blame it on my right as a writer to take some creative liberties with my work.

Shit, I did it again with "creative liberties."

Don't you hate it when you hear something being said everyday and then when you try to write it down and use it correctly in a goddam sentence, you can't? Ugh.

Maybe it means I'm stupid. Go figure.

Anyway! The point of this post. Like many adolescents, I had braces. Unlike most adolescents, I actually kinda liked them. You know how some perfect people have perfectly white teeth? I don't and I had to rely on the bits of metal in my mouth to convince me that my teeth were making that "shiiiing" sound effect cartoon characters make when they show off their pearly whites. That's why I liked having braces. Never mind that unbearable, headache-inducing pain I had going on every time I took a bite outta something that seemed to last the entire time I had braces on or that sometimes the wire would break and a long piece of sharp metal started poking at the inside of my mouth causing me more pain. I could take all'o that because I had deluded myself into thinking I looked more handsome with a metallic smile.

Yeah, one more point for the "I'm probably stupid" column.

Well, eventually, I had to say good bye to my braces. No more food stuck getting stuck in my mouth, no more sharp metal wires, no more tightening and bleeding gums, no more pain and no more awesome metallic smile.

Then came the retainers. Oh shit.

I hated wearing my retainers. The things made me spit when I talked, got food stuck uncomfortably on the roof my mouth and caused me more pain. I swear, a baby could have lightly tapped my top lip and I would have cried...like a baby. God awful things really. Supposedly, they were for the good of my teeth (Which they are. Or else, dentists and such wouldn't be prescribing them. - Common sense) but no one said they would be worse than braces. So what did I do? I stopped wearing them, that's what. Fuck dentists.

Turns out, they said "Fuck you, Jeri" back.

The gap in between the middle of my two top front teeth is getting bigger. The gap that the braces had already corrected and the retainers were supposed to support until there would be no more space between my teeth. Damn it.

I am wearing my retainers now and already it is starting to bother me. Saliva is building up in my mouth and it is proving difficult to swallow it. My retainers are going to fucking kill me. All because I was too much of a sissy to wear them in the first place. Awesome.

Transformers: War For Cybertron

I read a review saying that Transformers: War For Cybertron would be less received if it wasn't a Transformers game. That could possibly be true since half the fun is living the dream of being Optimus Prime (complete with Peter Cullen voice) and blowing 'Cons to holy hell. (The other half is Warpath who sounds almost exactly like he did in the cartoon.)

Well you know what? I do not care. Did you read that up there? I GET TO PLAY AS OPTIMUS PRIME. That alone makes it worthwhile. You also get to play as other Transformers (Megatron, Soundwave, Sideswipe, Ironhide, etc.), the story is supposedly in sync with the cartoon's continuity and you can watch the credits to the sound of a wailing Stan Bush. As a Transformers fan, it's a pretty sweet deal.

Sure, it gets annoying when I accidentally transform while in the middle of a fight (the transformation button is on the left joystick, which you use to move) and the game is pretty short but it's the best Transformers game to date so it's easy to overlook the imperfections.

The inevitable sequel should have longer campaign modes, split-screen co-op and escalation (Split-screen is quickly becoming a thing of the past!), even more Autobots and Decepticons to choose from, combiner-capability and more Stan Bush. Those are my list of demands. I patiently await for the next game.

Transform and roll out.

Inception

Inception. Definitely not lame. Amazing? Sure, what the hell. The effects, mainly, were kinda friggin' awesome (my theater called it "2D Digital," whatever that is) and convinced me that Joseph Gordon-Levitt could play Spider-Man. The characters, who we are supposed to care about, were generally engaging even if I felt that they weren't as fleshed out as they could possibly be. Leonardo Di Caprio, was a fine leading man even if his dialogue was confusing. He was doing a lot of explaining in the movie and really, most of it just went through my head like, "Oh okay. So?" but it was fine really. Could have done with out all the Ellen Page-y exposition though. I would've liked to see a little more of how the team bonded because they seemed to be a little too focused on team-play when they hardly were a merry band at the beginning of the movie (Levitt's and Tom Hardy's characters were definitely not friends before the mission). I am thankful that Nolan didn't play the "traitor" trope in this one though. I was waiting for it the whole time like crazy but I am glad that nothing of the sort happened even if it made me feel anxious about the whole forced camaraderie thing. My guess? Levitt, Cobra Commander himself OR Ken Watanabe's character, who I really have a hard time with. His motivations were, as we were led to believe, fueled by practicality, mostly. I wish there was something more sinister to it since the film lacked a villain. Sure, you could argue that the villain was actually Cobb (Di Caprio's character) but his triumph didn't feel all too triumphant given how it ended. Plus, Nolan forced Page's Ariadne too much. It didn't feel organic, her care and concern for Cobb.

All in all, however, Inception is a really fun (and really long) movie. The action scenes were inspired, especially the chase scene in the Mombasa streets and the concepts were really something else. Watch it now and tell me what you think happened in the end.

True Friendship

So it seems that I am in a state of denial-slash-acceptance, over-you-but-not-really and there-is-still-hope-even-if-there-isn't-really. (This makes sense to me, I promise.) When I spend time with you, I am happy. And that's okay. That's alright. You make me happy. Like a friend. Like a real, honest-to-goodness friend.

True friendship is a fantastic thing. It's so rare and you accomplish it with so few people that every time you do figure it out and realize what's going on, it's a lovely thing. And it doesn't all mean anything romantic even - that's something else entirely. It's just a knowing kinda thing, a trust. Like, when you know, you know, and that's that.

Anyway, the point is, I think I've finally accepted it. That you and I will never be together, that she and I are destined to be in each other's lives but not for romantic reasons, that we will only be friends. And it's perfect and I am content with that because...well, I have to be. I have to want it to be.

I think.