Movie review: Alien vs. Predator - Requiem

I really wanted this movie to rock. And while it was better than the first one (not hard), I didn't enjoy it that much. Not that it sucked per se, it may be that I have actually become jaded to both franchises and I pretty much knew what to expect. Aliens and Predators fight, people get caught in the middle and die.


While the movie wasn't the CGI-fest that it could have been and having physical "creatures" actually there made it seem a lot creepier, they somehow failed to find the balance from Alien and Aliens regarding what you could see... it was too dark. Yes, dark is scary and hides the fact that the monster is a latex prop or suit, but a little more visibility would have made a difference. Then again, maybe I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read a review with a similar criticism before seeing the movie.

Another thing that bothered me were some inconsistencies regarding the "mythos". Some things happened too fast for the sake of convenience. Some "rules" were changed. And what was up with that blue liquid?

The human characters exist mainly to provide casualties. I was stoked on the notion of this taking place in a populated area, raising the risk and tension, and I didn't want a lot of time wasted on character development, but I don't think I could have told you any of the characters' names by the time I reached my car. I will say that my survivor list was slightly off... one died that I expected to live and one lived that I expected to die. And the filmmakers try to make the list harder to make by showing that some of the conventional rules are out.

One surprise was that they passed on an obvious set-up for another sequel. Maybe its just as well.

2 of 5 cloaked xenomorph flying monkeys.

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Dark Knight prologue

Thanks Melissa!

Check it out before it gets yanked! The prologue to the next Batman movie that is running in front of the IMAX version of "I am Legend". Granted, it's via a camera phone, but this should tide you over until Warner Bros. release the real mccoy to the general public (in other words when they can no longer use it to lure people to a given movie).

I'm guessing this Joker won't be capering to Prince.

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Bizarre Xmas Cat video

Happy Yule, Merry Christmas, Festive Festivus and all the rest of the holiday crap.

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201

Stay on target... stay on target...


Today I had to sit in the break room with a birthday cake while I had my Slim-fast and cereal bar for lunch. I think my sense of smell has become more acute when it comes to food. But I stayed good, despite my usual mantra of "free food has no calories".

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202

Wow, I wasn't kidding when I said stress was slimming! I had to go out and buy new work pants yesterday and another pound fell off.


Normally when I drop to new low weight, my weight bounces up and down in a couple pound range. This time it just stayed at 203 a few days then fell to 202.

I think part of it is that I no longer give in to my stress reaction of eating. While I can still hear the whispers of the cravings wanting candy and salty snacks and pizza, it's been long enough that they are just whispers as opposed to yelling in my ear.

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MMOvie trailer

ven though I no longer play WoW, I have to admire the work that goes into videos like this.

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203

Stress is slimming! Sure, I may have picked up a nervous tick in my right eye, but another pound is gone.


While my goal of 200 is very close, I don't think I'll make it by New Year's... barring any serious health issues. While I haven't been putting in a lot of overtime, things have been extremely hectic at work. Plus I found out I get to go to the store I refer to as "Hell On Earth" for a few weeks to help them out with an upcoming inventory and the manager in charge of it being out. As I type this my eyelid is twitching.

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Led Zeppelin Reunited footage

Look here. It's Zeppelin.

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Undead Lolcatz

moar funny pictures

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Review: The Golden Compass

Often I worry that reading other reviews for a movie will prejudice my own. Even though I review based on how I enjoy the film and not on "artistic merit", sometimes reading a review will change my expectations. The few reviews I'd read on The Golden Compass complained that there was "too much information" or that the "plot was too complicated".

Now I remember... there is no IQ test to be reviewer.

One can argue that I have an unfair advantage because I've read Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. But that was roughly 8 - 10 years ago. My girlfriend at the time told me "Harry Potter is crap... read this instead" and handed me her copy of the Golden Compass. The material is much more complicated than Rowling's books and I think that is part of the reason it has taken so long for Dark Materials to make it to the screen. It is a real challenge to distill it down to the point that the average person can follow and enjoy it.

The movie itself turned out very well. It relied a *lot* on CGI, but it wasn't distracting and the acting was very good. It managed to avoid the epicitis of other fantasy movies (Peter Jackson I'm looking at you) with out sacrificing too much. I really hope they make the other two movies. Especially since in the movie they pretty much committed to it.

My only beef with the movie is how it ended. Without spoiling, it felt like we were a couple of chapters away from the end. The initial chapters in trilogies like Star Wars, the Matrix, and Pirates of the Caribbean had an advantage in that they weren't designed to be trilogies, so the first move had to stand alone. Somehow Jackson managed to close each of the LotR movies with out us going "huh? That's it?"

That's what happened at the end of Compass. In fact, the main character summarizes all of the remaining plot threads, then we go to black.

But overall, it's a very enjoyable movie, will be added to the DVD collection, and I look forward to (and hope for) the other two installments in the trilogy.

And armored polar bears rock.

My rating: 4 of 5 shape-shifting daemon flying monkeys.

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Here comes Speed Racer

Speed Racer Trailer
Uploaded by mamouang

I don't know what to think... odds are very high this movie will suck bantha balls. It would take a miracle for them to pull off a decent movie even with the nostalgic quasi-anime look and little details like a sound effect reminiscent of the original Mach 5's boosters. But it has so much stacked against it, not to mention the fact that my childhood memories of things are actually better than the original source material. Something that was totally cool when I was 7 would be totally lame if I go back and watch it now.

But that probably won't stop me from seeing this movie.

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Prince Caspian trailer

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Fanboy XMas II: Wrath of Claus

It's long and may draw odd looks from your co-workers (but otherwise safe).

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