New York achievements evening August 10th

Saw #Wicked at #Gershwin Theatre. Amazing performers, really nice set pieces and effects, bought many souvenirs.

Also an achievement from Wicked evening: #walking up five flights of stairs in heels at a tube stop. NEVER AGAIN!

New York trip achievements August 9th to 10th

Didn't expect this climate in New York, extremely humid and hot, it's like being in a tropical country!
Last night we unlocked the achievements: 
#wait 50 min on runway for plane to dock 
 #take airport train into town 
#subway to near hotel 
#wander around the Meatpacking district with suitcases trying to find hotel.

Morning after arriving we had breakfast at the Cookshop in Chelsea right next to the hotel. Where I had american pancakes for the first time!
Today's achievements: 
#American breakfast
#not finding the store we were looking for
#finding a tourist attraction (High line park - park created on old railway lines over 10th Ave) totally by chance
#going cross-Manhattan and changing subways
#visiting Bloomingdales and again not finding the store we're looking for
#shopped at GAP

         

The Dark Knight Rises

It's a good film, a strong film, Gordon-Levitt does an amazing job, and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is really a new start for a previously muddled character (give her a film!), Gordon and Fox are still amazing, as is Alfred and Bruce, but the ending let me down so much.

I was waiting for one sentence, one sentence the whole movie, and it never came; "that's the Question"

Where you overridden Nolan?

Also missed several characters that deserved an appearance, at least a cameo: Barbara, Renee Montoya, Maggie Sawyer (!!), the Penguin (somebody would have taken care of Gotham's richest) and Harvey, whose been missing the entire series.

The ending felt like such a cop-out, it just... It made me really, really sad.

Posted with Blogsy

Prometheus

When Ridley Scott makes strong female characters, Ridley Scott makes strong female characters!

A genuine psychological and philosophical film, exploring what it means to be human and the big questions about life, creation, alien life and where we come from.

If you go in expecting an action-filled horror film, or the answers to the Alien-quadrology you will be disappointed.

The film asks more questions than it gives answers, and features some strong, stereotype-bending characters.

I especially liked Janek, the pilot, who uniquely is one of the smartest persons abroad the vessel, and the most caring.

Elisabeth Shaw is an extremely strong woman, without being butch or the "all-business" type. She has a dimentionality to her character I rarely see in movies, and especially not thriller/action-type movies. She's also uniquely treated as the boss the entire film without anyone drawing attention to it or questioning her leadership (well, besides her boss).

Michael Fassbender does an amazing job as David, the best acting performance in the movie, and the best I've seen in a long while, in a very challenging role.

Dr. Holloway is the weakest character of the main cast, and his "Indiana Jones"-type and brash behavior makes him more annoying than charming, and you might find yourself hoping for his death after a short while.

Some of the smaller roles are a lot less fleshed out, with diffuse roles and one seriously idiotic biologist, but they do not get enough screen time for it to be a serious problem.

The environments are beautiful, from the sterile Sci-fiesque space ship to the grey alien world, and there's a lot of subtle details in the design of everything they see. Everything from sound to lighting and colour blended together to create the otherworldly world, and I can't remember either music or digital effects, like it should be with a good movie.

The film felt much closer to its predecessors; 2001 and Alien than it felt to any modern movie. It had a quietness and slowness you rarely see these days, and might, unfortunately not be a good thing for it. The two closest modern equivalents I can think of would be Sunshine (which wasn't a good film at all) and Moon.


In the end I felt it was a beautiful, strong and philosophical film, and I enjoyed the whole experience (besides Dr. Holloway, bleh!). I think I'd rate it 8/10.

Bit-size impressions: Avengers

Really enjoyed Avengers. 
Captain America and Thor grew as characters and actors, new Hulk had a great personality, and Nick Fury is awesome! 
Some plot leaps and not well-explained character changes, and Hawkeye was not very likable, or played well, but nothing that impaired the great experience. Entertaining the whole way through!

Black Mirror 3 - Adventure Game review

Good ending to the trilogy!

Ended up enjoying Black Mirror 3 a lot more than I thought I would do, the second game was a bit all over the place, but the developers obviously listened to the criticism, and Black Mirror 3 goes back to the feel and story of the first Black Mirror game.
I absolutely hated Black Mirror 1's chunky controls, progression system, and protagonist, but Black Mirror 3 really expanded on the original story, kept referencing even minor characters and even explained some of Samuel's behavior, and I ended up wanting to go back and play Black Mirror 1 again, a game I swore never to touch with a six foot pole. 

Pros: Updated, strong story, new characters interesting and unique, main protagonist grown a bit more likable, nice backgrounds, good art and good animations, strong horror feel, true to the original in every way 

Cons: Some weird progressions, puzzles seem thrown in and out of place, most do not give enough feedback when solving (Read diary!!), fortune teller felt like a tacked on help system without any impact on game (almost like there were many more death moments that were taken out), voice actors are all over the place in quality, Ralph story comes to a VERY un-fulfilling end. 

The ending sets out to really explain and expand the history of Black Mirror and the Gordon clan, and while I enjoyed both the end puzzles (besides the skeleton-puzzle!) and dialogue, I was very dissatisfied with the epilogue, which just continued explaining unnecessary things, instead of showing the future like I wanted, and hoped for. 
For an ending with so. much. dialogue, it still ended up ending abruptly, and leaving me wanting more. 

Still, it's absolutely worth playing, and Black Mirror 3, as a whole, was both a fitting ending to the trilogy, and the best game in the series (in my opinion).

Gray Matter - Adventure game review

Adventure Gaming and review

Been in an adventure gaming mood lately, not sure how long it'll last, and it has been a while since the previous "AG mood" hit, but trying to get through my backlog now when I'm interested.

First, I finally finished Gray Matter, Jane Jensen's newest game, nearly a year after I first started it... 

It started a bit slow, with some confusing controls, but the story really picked up after the first chapters. Story telling and progression was very strong, but the solution/ending was clear early on, and the finale quite underwhelming. 

Pros: great soundtrack, strong acting from main protagonists, Sam is an engaging and strong character, beautiful backgrounds, Daedalus club/stage magic subplot is fun and challenging. 

Cons: bad/lacking character/contact animation, some progressions don't trigger properly, some bad voice acting from smaller roles, and the comic book cutscenes often drag on too long, ruining the mood.

World Invasion: Battle LA

So, World Invasion: Battle L.A:

U.S military film with the alien invasion really just being an excuse for fighting in America. Immensely American, patriotic and arrogant (America only country managing to fighting back of 20 cities/countries attacked).

Way too big cast of indistinguishable marines and few known/good actors.

Main role - the staff sergeant carries the film; kamikazes himself through the plot, and is the only one showing some initiative to learn about the aliens.

Token though girl (Michelle Rodriguez) having to prove herself as a worthy soldier.

Not the worst military film I've seen, bot not very unique or creative either.

Late night randomness

Some evenings I get this huge urge for unspecified sweets. I do not know what I want, but I know we don't have it in house. So I resist as long as possible, but end up giving up and going to the nearby store, usually an hour/ half an hour before it closes.

There are several problems with this:

I do not like the dark, and get jumpy over strange shadows in my periferal vision. And footsteps freak me out. So after half running to the store, I walk around with a basket, having no clue what I want and just putting in randomness.

Feeling in no way up to shopping I don't manage to follow a shopping list or go to any great effort, but I can't just buy junk either, because then the shop assistant might think I'm only there to buy fatty things (which I am), so I end up picking up random things I can remember from the shopping list.

Not that I really have anything to worry about, as the Rema up the street is the chosen student shop, and really, everyone that was there shopping seemed to be doing the exact same thing I was doing, and picking up some "normal" items just for show, based on their shopping baskets.

So, though I pick up some random things we need, I can't muster to do anything else with them, like putting the bread in the cutting machine. For some reason I really did not want to do that with every fiber of my body.

Also, because I just have an unspecified urge for sweets, I end up buying many different things just to have options.

One last problem, I do not like being in stores when they're about to close. I feel like I'm in the way and causing them to not be able to go home, so when I hear/see things hinting to the store closing (like the shop assistants clearing away baskets) I get really stressed and feel like I have to finish as soon as possible and get out. Which makes going out late at night to shop a rather stressful experience, with really no good reason for doing it..

So tonight I came home with:

sour citrus lips (pick candy)

chocolate pudding

onions

a toothbrush

instant noodles with shrimp flavor (only store that has them in the vincinity, so I always stock up)

cherry tomatoes (offer)

foccaccia w/tomato

two ice creams

mozzarella

bread

chocolate and vanilla cream twist

garlic

Smoothie

Cupcakes

(20. Febuary 2011, Imported from Facebook)

I made (American) cupcakes recently, that turned out great, which is strange, considering my inability to bake.You see cupcake mix should just be gently stirred to mix the ingredients before baked. The thing is, I did not know this, and spent both batches of cupcakes mixing the batter like a mad woman, before giving up and just using it. (it said it should be lumpy, but I assumed they where talking about the chocolate pieces).

So, this tells me two things:

1. I suck at stirring,

2. This works to my benefit with cupcakes..

I've been using ready made packs from the store, but I found an easy cupcake recipie online, and have decided to try making them from scratch next time (somewhat spurred on by the cupcake mix packages costing around 50kr).

So far I've made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate bits and blueverry cupcakes. Would like to try making more healthy cupcakes with hole grain, but I'm afraid of jinxing it.. Oh, and really want to make redcurrant cupcakes!

Disney's 50th animation is worth watching

Tangled was great! It drew inspiration from the whole history of Disney fairy tales, keeping a very traditional art direction and story telling.They managed a classic fairy tale that, while not having a very original plot, managed to tell an original story.

Loved the return to a more musical driven film, loved that they weren't afraid to tell a very traditional story, with a traditional ending, and I love that they distinguished themselves from Shrek and Dreamworks, while still keeping faithful to the Disney heritage.

I'm also fond of Disney's continuing path of creating secondary characters with depth, heaps of personality, and flat out lovable. Though, Rapunzel was very fleshed out, and was really created with respect, kudos to Disney for honouring their female lead.

Emperor's New Groove

Decided to rewatch this one recently, and it's still one of my favourite Disney films, and surprisingly so, because I don't usually like that form of humour.
It's also the only film I know of that I actually think has a better name in Norwegian than English; Et kongerike for en Llama, A Kingdom for a Llama, which is much more descriptive and suitable for the film.

A Kingdom for a Llama is one of those films I go back to and rewatch every time I'm sick of pretentious animation trying to be more than its plot/humour opens for. Kingdom is nothing like this. It's a purely silly and funny film, and it's fully aware of both its humour type and its target audience, which makes it able to pull off humour, plot, character development and touching moments without jarring from the overall feel.

More than any other Disney film, Kingdom is carried by its actors, and would probably not have a place among my favourites without David Spade. He's funny, arrogant, and pulls off Kuzco to perfection. His comic timing is also totally on point, and works really well together with John Goodman (Pacha). Warburton is also great as Kronk, though rather type-cast.

Some of the physical gags don't work that well on repeated viewings, especially after having seen the Disney channel series, where the "wrong lever, Kronk!" and "I didn't order any [soft or bouncy objects]" gags are rehashed every episode. But, the film is still funny, Kuzco is still a really interesting character, and the plot is well-written (I love the whole "we're totally aware of this big plot hole and we're going to comment on it instead of ignoring it" when Kronk and Yzma reach the lab before Pacha and Kuzco).

It's interesting to watch how they manage to develop lovable, deep characters in a gag comedy like this, and it's also a very good example of good script writing, both plot and lines, within a physical-based humour film.

And my favourite line is still, after at least 4 viewings; "Yay, I'm a Llama again! Wait.."

Plan 9 from Outer Space

I've finally sat down and watched this, one of the most known bad films ever made, by one of the worst script writers ever.

And, wow, what can I say? Why do all the actors deliver their lines without any hint of feelings? How come nobody seem noticeably shaken up by small, flying hats tumbling across the sky?
Why do the really advanced aliens have no way of communicating with the humans, and when the humans finally build a way to understand the aliens, the aliens don't want to talk any longer, and then they happen to have a translator in their spaceship?
Why do Eros and Tanna have to kill the humans so that they won't tell the world, when the aliens had been trying to get the humans to acknowledge their existence?
Disregarding the stupid physics, why would humans make a bomb that would ruin the earth?
Why don't the aliens just animate all the dead on the graveyard(s?) instead of just one and one?
What happened to the scars from the "puma-like" attacks Vampira were supposed to inflict on her victims (and why are her arms/hands bigger than her waist?)? What happened to the grave diggers? Why are the animated dead vampires? Why do the people in the film have such horrid night vision that they can only see a few inches in front of them?
Why doesn't time pass for people not in shot (police men talking about looking for the inspector, we see the inspector attacked, then the police decide to go look for him)?
Not mentioning the changes in night and day shots, why is the Trent couples' car in front of a black wall? Why did the dead turn into skeletons when the space ship went away? "Dracula" only turned into a skeleton after being shot with a ray.
Why do I even bother to ask questions about this film?

Watching it you just end up being amazed that nobody spoke up about the horribleness of the film. I have a hard time believing so many actors can play that badly. The film is so horrible that it ends up seeming like a parody of bad sci-fi films, and several of the lines would have worked if they were uttered sarcastically (or with a pretense of feelings).
My favourite character has to be "Patrolman Harry" who's been cast as the "dumb cop" and plays so unconvincingly that he seems to be making fun of his lieutenant.
If nothing else the film serves as a "how to not write or direct a film" and seem to have been used as a blueprint for several newer films, most prominently the norwegian/french "Lies. Inc".

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Hmm, I'm not sure how to feel about this film. I've been complaining lately that so many animation films try to target too many audience groups and end up not targeting any, but this film is clearly aware of who it's made for; children.
The humour is mostly physical-, sight- and word gags, that work surprisingly well within this film, and is suited for the bright and colourful design.
The film's lowest moments are actually when the script writers are trying to be smart or do grown-up comedy. Most of the films emotional moments are driven by childish comedy, and it works.

Plot-wise it's very simple, adding a black-and-white villain for really no purpose at all, and the film is really driven more by the animation and gags rather than any real plot. In that way it's very similar to "Meet the Robinson's", Disney's second non-Pixar 3d film.
The film wavers between just being a funny, silly film, and actually trying to take it's plot seriously, and that is it's downfall, especially since most of the actors seem clearly aware that this is a silly, children's film, and do their lines in that style. Neil Patrick Harris is the real shining gem here, even if he only says a few words throughout the film.

As a children's film the moral is also very obvious and in your face, with the usual "being special is good" and "realizing yourself" developments for the main characters. It also includes the overly-used Disney favourite of single dad not being able to communicate with his son and alienating him. I'll give them props for the creative solution though.

As it is it's a good film, but it had potential to be just a really silly, amusing children's film, and it's a bit sad that it fell short by, as all recent (non-Pixar) animations have done, trying to take itself more seriously than its script allows. You're not Pixar, Sony, try to make your own twist on animation instead of trying (unsuccessfully) to copy what has come before. But, based on Sony's previous track record with animation, this is a huge step up (Don't even get me started on "Open season"..), and I'm interested in seeing where they'll go from here.

And now I'll try to wash my brain of the image of feet trapped inside polymer for over 15 years.. Bleergh!

Oscar nominated animation

Have finally finished watching the Oscar nominated animation shorts.
Interesting combination of animation styles and subjects, not sure what I think about Logorama, the winner. It has too crude humour for me, and I spent the film wishing the Big Boy (?) kid would just die. At least I understood the usage of the logos, as opposed to the previous imdb featured comment, which accused the film of being a marketing vehicle trying to shove as much commercials as it could in 16 minutes..

Of the 5 nominated I personally prefer the Italian "The lady and the reaper", even though it has too much "Benny Hill running around" and the ending was really sad. I seem to prefer animation that tries to convey an emotion, and takes its subject matter seriously, even if it's in a comedy form.

Granny O'Grimm's sleeping beauty is well animated and well voiced, but I wish it had been longer and a bit more complex.

French Roast is a situational comedy, which I actually think should have been shorter, and Wallace and Gromit's "short" (at 30 minutes it's way longer than all the other nominees) follows the standard "Wallace and Gromit" set up. I did like the introduction of some real feelings with Gromit and Fluffles and I think it has improved greatly from the first "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, but for some reason I'm still not very fond of them.

Now I just have to see "The Secret of Kells", and I've seen all the nominated animated films this year, though, the Golden Globes also nominated "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" which I haven't seen yet, and the Baftas nominated completely different animation shorts.